PRESS RELEASE: BHC in its annual report: Human rights in Bulgaria in 2013 – in-between standstill and serious violations

Sofia, April 1^st, 2014

In 2013, human rights in Bulgaria stalled in most areas, while repeated and serious violations were observed in others. There were also improvements. This situation is outlined in the annual report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC). It was released today at a press conference in Sofia.

The gravest and most widespread violations are related to the treatment of asylum seekers, the freedom of expression, the rights of children in institutions, the excessive use of force by law enforcement bodies and the use of special investigative techniques (SIT).

As in previous years, there are serious problems with the right of religious freedom of Muslim persons, the situation in places of detention, the independence of the judiciary, the discrimination against ethnic and sexual minorities, women, people with disabilities and other vulnerable categories of citizens.

"In 2013, the control over national security organs was weakened as the powers of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) were strengthened. SANS is an agency, acting as secret police. The year was also marked by an increase in complaints of unlawful and excessive use of force by the police," said Krassimir Kanev, chairperson of BHC.

Among the main human rights issues in Bulgaria in 2013, BHC stresses the following:

• In 2013, Bulgaria made ​​a serious departure from the standards ensuring the exercise of the right of asylum. Social assistance and the conditions of admission were also provided at or even below the required minimum, and access of asylum seekers to the territory underwent a process of serious and growing restrictions.

• The past year was challenging in terms of the protection of minority groups from racial violence and discrimination. Аt the height of the refugee crisis in the fall of 2013, through the use of xenophobic speech several neo-totalitarian political parties actively contributed to the creation of a hostile and threatening environment for ethnic minorities in Bulgaria, including refugees and asylum seekers.

• We observed troubling changes in the legal framework for the combat of organised crime. SANS was given additional powers to investigate crimes and to detain people without adequate judicial review.

• In 2013, the problem with using special investigative techniques (SIT) to monitor telephone or Internet conversations of citizens by covert means received wide publicity. Despite changes in legislation and declarations issued by the ruling parties, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, claiming that the scale and arbitrary use of SITs by the former ruling party, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), would be terminated, there are serious grounds to believe that the use of SITs in 2013 has in fact increased.

• In 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) did not reach many rulings on appeals against Bulgaria (26 in total). However, the number of rulings that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is monitoring and noting as such that are pending execution by the Bulgarian government have reached a record 372 as of mid-February 2014.

• Although the legal framework for the use of force and firearms in the Ministry of Interior Act was improved in 2012, it had no apparent effect on the incidence of excessive use of force and firearms in 2013. In 2013, there were at least three cases in which people lost their lives in suspected excessive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials. There was also a significant increase in the use of force in police stations and at several instances there was illegal use of force against protesters.

• No legislative reforms were undertaken to improve the legislation concerning the placement of children in conflict with the law in correctional boarding schools (CBS) and social educational boarding schools (SBS). In 2013, BHC visited several CBS and SBS and all crisis centers and found serious problems with the arbitrariness of placement in these institutions.

• By the end of 2013 no steps were taken in the direction of guaranteeing the rights of people with disabilities – neither in the respect of the law relating to legal capacity, nor in respect of the law for the accommodation of persons with mental disabilities in institutions.

• In 2013, no significant progress was made concerning the situation of religious freedom in the country. As in previous years, many violations were perpetrated against members of religious non-Orthodox denominations, including: vandalising of temples, discriminatory media coverage, failure by the prosecution to prosecute public incitement to religious hatred, discrimination and violence, etc. The lawsuit continued against the 13 imams, accused of preaching anti-democratic ideology in Pazardzhik.

• In Reporters without Borders’ ranking for media freedom in 2013, Bulgaria fell dramatically with 12 positions, and today it occupies the 100th place (the worst it has ever reached) and continues to be the country with the least free media in the EU. Problems that are identified are: poor ownership and financing transparency; media concentration; limited pluralism; interference by the owners in the editorial policy; various forms of pressure and severe self-censorship.

• A rise in closures of institutions for children was noted. The weakest point of the reform of childcare remained the abandonment prevention and the establishment of auxiliary services that create supportive environment for children and their families in order to prevent institutionalisation.

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The report in Bulgarian is available here.

The infographic for the report in Bulgarian is available here.

The BHC annual human rights reports are being published since 1993. They are available here.