Map source: Human Rights Watch

Population of women: 3,993,439/ 7,761,049
Life expectancy of women (at birth): 76.0 yrs
School life expectancy for women: 13 yrs
Adult illiteracy for women: 2.1%
Unemployment of women: 10.9%

Adult economic activity rate: 42.9%

Source: The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, updated 31 December 2004 and the U.N. Statistics Division, Social Indicators, updated March 2005.(Some statistics provided may be from previous years and other sources as cited by the U.N. Statistics Division)

last updated November 30, 2005

Contributed, by Liliya Sazonova, National VAW Monitor for Bulgaria.

The process of the Bulgarian accession to the EU required important changes to be introduced to Bulgarian legislation and new pieces of legislation to be adopted with a view to further transpose the acquis communautaire in the field of equal treatment for women and men and to protect women’s rights in general. In this respect, some very important laws aimed at improving women’s situation in the country came into force in the last two years. For example, these include the Law on Protection against Discrimination (2004), the Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings (2004), the Law on the Ombudsman (2004), and the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence (2005). At the same time, the Bill on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men was twice rejected by the National Assembly in 2002 and 2003 has never been adopted, on the grounds that a comprehensive anti-discrimination law was to be drafted.

On 16 March 2005, the National Assembly adopted the  Law on Protection against Domestic Violence (BGRF's unofficial translation sponsored by the Bulgarian Fund for Women) which came into force on 29 March 2005. According to Art. 2 of the Law, domestic violence is: “any act of physical, mental or sexual violence, and any attempted such violence, as well as the forcible restriction of individual freedom and of privacy, carried out against individuals who have or have had family or kinship ties or cohabit or dwell in the same home”. Under this Act protection against domestic violence is implemented through: placing the respondent under an obligation to refrain from applying domestic violence; removing the respondent from the common dwelling-house for a period specified by the court; prohibiting the respondent from getting in the vicinity of the home, the place of work, and the places where the victim has his or her social contacts or recreation; temporarily relocating the residence of the child with the parent who is the victim or with the parent who has not carried out the violent act at stake; placing the respondent under an obligation to attend specialised programmes. In all cases of violence, the court shall also make the respondent liable by a fine in the range between 200 and 1000 Leva (100 to 500 euro). As to the State’s responsibilities under the law, it is indicated that it shall ensure the implementation of programmes aimed at the prevention of and protection against domestic violence, as well as programmes providing assistance to the victims. The validity of the protection order is for up to one year. In order to expedite the procedure, the applications and requests are registered immediately so that the decision will be issued within 1 to 1½ months. The first Court’s protection order under the new Law was issued on 12 May 2005 when the Regional Court in Russe ordered a husband who was a perpetrator of domestic violence to be removed from the home he commonly inhabited with his wife for a period of one year and banned him from approaching the home and the places of social contacts of the victims (his wife and children) for the same period.

In July of 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) handed down an important decision for victims of domestic violence in Bulgaria. The case, Bevacqua and S. v. Bulgaria, was brought by two Bulgarian nationals, a mother and her son. The first applicant, the mother, had suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, and was seeking a divorce and custody of their one child. She alleged that Bulgaria failed in its obligations under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, in that the court failed to assist the first applicant who was a victim of domestic violence in her prosecution of her abuser and that the court failed to find within a reasonable amount of time on the dispute concerning the custody of the second applicant, the child.

Under Bulgarian law, when domestic abuse consists of a light bodily injury, the obligation is on the private individual to prosecute the offender. The ECHR found that it was unfair to expect a victim to prosecute and investigate in the dangerous situation of domestic violence and that Bulgaria violated its obligations under Art. 8 of the Convention to provide adequate response from authorities. However, the European Court took the position that it may be possible for States to require self-prosecution and fulfill Art. 8, but that it was not reasonable under these specific circumstances.

On the issue of prompt response on child custody during the interim of the divorce proceedings, the ECHR also found a violation of Art. 8. They held that it should have been obvious that prompt measures were needed, in particular, in the child's interest. This error, in combination with the problems of ineffective assistance from the court and police officers to provide protection from domestic abuse, resulted in the violation of Art. 8 obligations. 

Article 152 of the Penal Code imposes a punishment of three to fifteen years of imprisonment for rape. Punishment for sexual harassment is imposed only in cases in which sexual intercourse occurs between a woman and a man who has abused his power over her. The Code does not describe sexual harassment as a form of violence against women or gender discrimination in the workplace and does not prohibit harassment that does not involve intercourse.

On 7 May 2003 the Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings was adopted by the 39th National Assembly and came into force in January 2004. Additionally, trafficking in human beings is a criminal offense under the Bulgarian Penal Code since 2002. The national program for fighting human trafficking, which envisages building of administrative structures, increase of the knowledge of the society on the problem with human trafficking and mechanisms for its limitation, was accepted on 26 January 2005 at the session of the National Commission for Fighting Human Trafficking.

In January 2004 a law on the prevention of discrimination (unofficial translation), which prohibits all forms of discrimination based on age, gender, ethnic group, national origin, education, family status, and property status, including sexual harassment came into force. The Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination is charged with investigating complaints and enforcing the law.

In addition to state enforcement mechanisms, the ombudsman serves to reinforce the above legal provisions.  The Law on the Ombudsman, in force since 1 January 2004, provides that the Ombudsman shall interevene when the citizens' rights and freedoms are violated through the acts or ommissions of the state.

However, so far little progress has been achieved in the implementation of the above-mentioned newly adopted legislation and bodies. Activities in this field remain low and although legal mechanisms for protection exist, they are not actively used. Moreover, even when adopted the above-mentioned Laws are rather new and there is a lack of related practice, making it difficult to evaluate their implementation. Another problem is the still vague system of correlation between the different institutions that will be established, as well as their funding. An indicative example is the situation with the state-financed shelters for victims of violence. Although the State obligations in securing shelters and rehabilitation for victims of violence are legally guaranteed both by the Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings and by the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence, there are no concrete measures and steps undertaken by the State to fulfill its responsibility. In addition, there are shelters and crisis centers that have closed or are about to be closed due to the lack of funding after international organizations that supported them began to withdraw, leaving their important role to the State itself. Currently, only the Municipal Council of Silistra has decided to provide funds from its municipal budget for 2005 for the local shelter for women victims of domestic violence. This is the first and only positive step of the executive at the local level to acknowledge officially the necessity of this social service. The situation is similar when it comes to providing psychological and legal assistance for survivors of violence, operating hot-lines for victims of violence, and conducting training programs for law enforcement professionals to implement the adopted legislation. All of these activities remain as initiatives of the non-governmental sector in Bulgaria and rely mainly on external sources of finance.  

Compiled from:

Monitoring the EU Accession Process, Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, Executive Report for Bulgaria, Open Society Institute, 2002. (PDF, 8 pages).

Women 2000 - An Investigation into the Status of Women's Rights in Central and South-Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, 2000. (PDF, 19 pages).