Brussels, 16 May 2006

Commission: Bulgaria’s and Romania’s accession possible in 2007, if preparation efforts are intensified

Today the Commission adopted its monitoring reports on Bulgaria's and Romania's preparedness for EU accession. In the light of its findings the Commission considers that Bulgaria and Romania should be prepared for EU membership on 1 January 2007, provided that they address a number of outstanding issues. The Commission presents a carefully calibrated approach that is aimed at ensuring the continuation of the reforms in both countries up to and beyond accession.

On 25 April 2005, Bulgaria and Romania signed the Treaty of Accession, which foresees their joining the EU on 1 January 2007. The Commission has presented Monitoring Reports on their preparedness in October 2005, in which a number of shortcomings were identified. The current reports review the progress since October 2005.

Presenting the reports President Barroso said: “Bulgaria and Romania have made clear progress since October last which we acknowledge. Both countries should be able to reach the finishing line on 1 January 2007. But in order to do, efforts must be intensified, especially in the reform of the judiciary and fight against corruption. I encourage the authorities in Bulgaria and Romania to take our recommendation as an incentive to finalise their preparations. The EU wants to honour its commitments. This requires respect for the accession criteria defined.”

Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn added: “An independent and effective justice system, fully prepared to fight corruption and organised crime is the foundation of every democratic society. It is also the guarantee for a successful membership in the EU, since the functioning of the Union is based on the respect of law.”

In this key area, since last October 2005 Bulgaria has adopted several laws to reform the justice system. It also has taken measures to fight corruption, which allowed investigations into high-level corruption cases to be launched.

Romania has taken significant steps in the reform of the judiciary. It has established solid structures for the fight against corruption and has launched investigations into a considerable number of high-level corruption cases.

Based on the findings of the reports the Commission considers that it should be possible for both Bulgaria and Romania to be prepared for EU membership on 1 January 2007, provided they address the following issues:

• Bulgaria needs to demonstrate clear evidence of results in the fight against corruption, in terms of investigations and judicial proceedings. It also needs to further reform the judiciary, in particular to reinforce its transparency, efficiency and impartiality.
• Romania needs to continue its efforts and demonstrate further results in the fight against corruption. It also needs to consolidate the implementation of the ongoing justice reform and further enhance the transparency, efficiency and impartiality of the judiciary.

In addition a number of issues identified by the Commission as giving cause for serious concern^[1] in the transposition of the EU laws and standards must be addressed. The number of such issues has significantly decreased since the October 2005 reports (from 16 to 6 in Bulgaria and from 14 to 4 in Romania).

The Commission will review the progress of the two countries no later than early October this year. On this basis, the Commission will consider whether the date of their accession to the EU in 2007 can be maintained. In the event of a 2007 accession this report will also specify any areas where safeguards^[2] or other remedial measures may be needed upon accession.

For further information see: MEMO/06/201

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/index.htm

Published in: Press Release, Commission: Bulgaria’s and Romania’s accession possible in 2007, if preparation efforts are intensified, European Commission, 16 May 2006.

For more information:

May 2006 Monitoring Report on Bulgaria 

May 2006 Monitoring Report on Romania 

Report on Documenting Women’s Human Rights Violations by Non-State Actors  
(PDF, 93 pages)

• Documentation of the laws for preventing domestic violence and prosecuting offenders and their implementation on the national level;
• Collection of data on domestic violence against women and other statistical trends
• Prevention of domestic violence against women;
• Promotion of intervention and cooperation initiatives, including help, working with offenders and empowerment of victims;
• Increased attention to the situation of migrant women
• Increased involvement of legal, law enforcement, educational, mental health, medical and welfare workers;
• Review of access and contact injunctions, including the need to provide a legal basis for expelling offenders from the home so the victims may remain;
• Increased attention to the situation of older women;
• Social inclusion of victims in general and in the employment sector.

Compiled from: Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Domestic Violence against Women (own-initiative opinion) (SOC 218) (2006).

The 2005 Call for Papers focused on some of INSTRAW’s priority research areas, including Gender, Governance and Women’s Political Participation; Gender, Migration and Remittances; and Gender, Peace and Security. The Papers selected and published in 2005* are listed below, and cover a variety of topics from women’s participation in the water sector in Nepal to the gender dimensions of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine.

Reprinted with permission from UN INSTRAW. Published in: New Voices, New Perspectives Paper Series, UN INSTRAW (last visited 15 May 2006).

Uzbekistan's Justice Ministry has accused the organization of breaking a number of laws.

Lelei LeLaulu, the head of Counterpart International, told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that the group has not decided whether it will lodge an appeal.

"There is a certain point where we have to look and decide whether an appeal will only make it more difficult for our staff and colleagues or whether we should just accept the court's order at this stage and perhaps look at ways of working with the Uzbek people in another stage of our development," LeLaulu said.

In a statement on May 3, Counterpart International said it has delivered nearly $80 million in medical and humanitarian aid during its work in Uzbekistan.

In the past six months, Uzbek authorities have also shut down offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the group Freedom House, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tashkent bureau.

Published in: Uzbekistan Court Shuts Down U.S. NGO, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 5 May 2005.

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

ICRW Releases New How-to Guide on Reducing Violence and AIDS Stigma
Manual Provides Practical Tools for Community Groups in Developing Countries
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 3, 2006—The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) recently released the HIV/AIDS Stigma and Violence Reduction Intervention (SVRI) manual, a how-to guide for community organizations working to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS in developing countries.

“Stigma and gender-based violence fuel the HIV/AIDS pandemic by limiting access to and use of HIV/AIDS-related services for prevention, treatment, care and support,” says Nata Duvvury, Ph.D., one of the manual’s authors and director of ICRW’s work on gender, violence and rights. “HIV/AIDS programs that fail to consider stigma and gender-based violence can be only partially effective, at best.

“The SVRI manual provides communities with practical tools they can use to address stigma, violence and other barriers undercutting their efforts to fight HIV and AIDS,” she adds. The manual is based on findings from the Stigma and Violence Reduction Intervention project, conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India, from 2003 to 2005. ICRW staff worked with groups who experience stigma and violence – sex workers, truckers’ helpers and truckers’ spouses – to devise a community-appropriate intervention. Because these groups regularly interact with highly mobile people like truckers who are difficult to target for interventions, they can play an important role in changing norms that condone dangerous behaviors. The intervention is described in the manual, which also includes a toolkit detailing workshop agendas and distinct activities for various community groups.

“The SVRI project is significant because it shows that attitudes and behaviors that drive HIV stigma and gender-based violence can shift,” Duvvury says. “The key is involving communities to reflect on the problem and devise their own solutions. If they are empowered and motivated, change is possible.”

Nandini Prasad and Nanda Kishore, both of ICRW, co-wrote the report.

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a leading Washington, D.C.-based international research organization that works to improve the lives of women and girls in developing countries. Learn more about ICRW and its work at www.icrw.org.

For more information:

HIV & AIDS-Stigma and Violence Reduction Intervention Manual (PDF, 130 pages)

Compiled from: The United Nations Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children, Violencestudy.org, 2006.

Compiled from: What You Should Know...., Amnesty International Online, 2006.

...AFTER TAJIK PRESIDENT CALLS FOR CONCERTED FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING. Chairing a cabinet meeting in Dushanbe, Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov on May 2 instructed his ministers and other senior officials to devote greater attention to efforts to counter human trafficking, Asia-Plus reported. Rakhmonov further called for the implementation of a recent five-year state program to focus on crimes related to human trafficking. Cooperation between Tajik and United Arab Emirates law-enforcement officials resulted in the return of about 45 Tajik victims of human trafficking in October. There are several thousand Tajik women estimated to have been victimized by traffickers and tricked into prostitution abroad (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 17, 2005). Human trafficking is an increasing problem for Central Asia, with several countries serving as both sources and transit states for young female victims. RG

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org.

To view the full report, please visit: CEDAW Assessment Tool Report for the Russian Federation.

Compiled from: CEDAW Assessment Tool Report for the Russian Federation, ABANET.org, 2006.

To view the full resolution, please visit: Improving Coordination Efforts Against Slavery and Trafficking of Persons.

Compiled from: Improving Coordination Efforts Against Slavery and Trafficking of Persons, WUNRN.com, 17 April 2006.

For more information, please visit: CRI-VIFF-CAD-Postdoctoral Scholarship.

To access the full report, please visit: Trafficking in Persons-Global Patterns.

Compiled from: Virtually no country immune from human trafficking, UNODC report shows, UNODC.org, 24 April 2006.

First part of this manual is applied to analyse the problem of trafficking in human beings, regarding phases of THB, current legislature in Serbia, risk groups, prevention, usefull contacts etc.  Second part is all about peer education, and in the last part you will find step guides for the workshops for young people. This Manual will be distributed to the Red Cross Youth activists, who already passed ASTRA's one-day workshop on combating human trafficking. These young people will share the knowledge acquired at this workshop with their peers in their local communities, having Peer Education Manual «Human Trafficking – Our Response» at disposal as an assistive tool.

Realisation of this Manual was supported by Danish Red Cross, the Red Cross of Norway and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. 

For the  moment, Manual is available only in Serbian, and it could be found at:

http://www.astra.org.yu/sr/pdf/istrazivanje5.pdf

NGO Astra
Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Tel: +381 11 3347 853, fax: +381 11 3347 817
E-mail: astranet@sezampro.yu
Web address: www.astra.org.yu

Compiled from: Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS, Commission on the Status of Women, Economic and Social Council, United Nations, March 9, 2006.

Compiled from: "No country treats its women the same as its men: The Gender Equality Index- A New Perspective," Social Watch Research Team, Social Watch, April 25, 2006.

Compiled from: Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia, and North America, International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, 4 April 2006.

Compiled from: Responding to Violence Against Women: How development policies address the issue of gender-based violence, Belen Sobrino, United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, March 2006.

Strasbourg, 12.04.2006 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today expressed its concern that between 30 000 and 60 000 women might be the object of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation at the forthcoming Football World Cup in Germany and asked FIFA to firmly condemn trafficking in women.

“In its capacity as World Cup organiser, FIFA must also assume its responsibility to condemn the exploitation of women, which sometimes, highly regrettably, accompanies the holding of sports events, and therefore to denounce any activities that threaten human rights.”

Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), rapporteur on the subject, regretted that “FIFA considers trafficking in human beings to be a form of collateral damage which just has to be accepted. FIFA and its President Joseph Blatter have to accept their responsibilities.”

The resolution adopted recalls the existence, since May 2005, of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which sets out measures for the prevention of trafficking, the protection of victims and the prosecution of traffickers, but also points out that no member state has to date ratified it. PACE therefore urges member states to sign and ratify this Convention “as soon as possible, so that it may come into force at the earliest opportunity and have the broadest possible impact”.

With the World Cup imminent, the Assembly has asked governments to implement without delay the main provisions of the Convention, such as the victim identification process and the recovery and reflection period of thirty days for their benefit. They also called for further assistance to help victims by setting up, for example, multilingual information, reception and assistance centres.

They finally called on member states to ensure that “the police treat women victims of trafficking in human beings as victims and not as illegal immigrants”, and to consider “the possibility of holding responsible those who use the services provided by victims of trafficking”.

Parliamentary Assembly Communication Unit
Tel: +33 3 88 41 31 93
Fax : +33 3 90 21 41 34
pace.com@coe.int
internet: www.coe.int/press

The meeting resulted in a report, which centered on several key objectives that were set for the Consultation. The report contains seven main sections. Sections one, two, three and four focus on the four main sources of abuse, which includes state actors, non-state actors, families and communities, and sex and sexuality-based attacks. Sections five and six discuss strategies for addressing abuse.  Section five describes the UN tools available in order to prevent and hold those accountable for abuse and section six contains recommendations from participants of the Consultation. The final section presents conclusions.

International Consultation on Women's Human Rights Defenders: Proceedings (PDF, 55 pages)