STATEMENT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT, BULGARIA, TO THE OSCE IMPLEMENTATION MEETING ON HUMAN DIMENSION, OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 1998, WARSAW

The Human Rights Project is an independent Roma rights advocacy organization established in 1992 in Sofia. We monitor the human rights situation of the Roma people in Bulgaria; report on ethnically motivated violence and discrimination against Roma; provide legal aid to victims of human rights violations and advocate observance of Roma rights before the competent state institutions.

Over the years of its work, focusing on the defense of Roma rights in Bulgaria, the Human Rights Project has sought adequate response from the state to acts of human rights violations against Roma and has addressed the competent institutions to guarantee that violence against Roma should be curbed by the effective enforcement of the law. We have reported hundreds of cases of ill-treatment of Roma by law-enforcement officers as well as racist attacks on Roma, many of which have been left without consideration by the respective authorities. Regrettably, the Bulgarian state has failed to develop and enforce the necessary mechanisms in order to counter the alarming manifestations of intolerance and discriminatory treatment with respect to Roma. While Bulgaria denounced the policy of the totalitarian governments and took on the way of the democratic development, it did little to comply with one of the basic principles of this development, i.e. the promotion of cultural understanding and respect for the rights of the people belonging to minorities.

With the awareness that Roma people in Bulgaria remain the most disadvantaged group as regards the enjoynment of their fundamental rights and freedoms, and realizing that none of the Bulgarian governments after 1989 had undertaken serious and long-term initiatives to guarantee the equality of Roma as citizens of the state and their adequate participation in the political, socio-economic and cultural processes of Bulgarian society, in the beginning of 1998 the Human Rights Project initiated the drafting of a policy document about the Roma community in Bulgaria that sets up the principles for a comprehensive strategy of the state aimed at the solution of the Roma problem in Bulgaria. The document entitled "For Equal Participation of Roma in the Public Life of Bulgaria", proposes measures to be undertaken by the Bulgarian government in order to gurantee the equal status of Roma in different spheres of society: politics, economics, education, culture and the media. It insists that the strategy for the slolution of the Roma problem should indispensably commence from the solution of the basic problem of the inequal treatment of Roma in Bulgarian society. The core concept of the document is that discrimination against Roma preconditions all the other problems that are already known to the society and it states that the elimination of the discrimination towards Roma should become one of the major political priorities of the Bulgarian state.

The Program "For Equal Participation of Roma in the Public Life of Bulgaria" was drafted by an expert team and after that submitted for discussion to Roma organizations throughout the country. Its final version compiles the ideas and proposals made by Roma community members from all over the country and expresses their will for a change in the governmental policy towards Roma. The appearance of this document marks the first collaborative and coherent action of Roma organizations in Bulgaria towards the accomplishment of a dialogue with the Bulgarian government on its politics with respect to Roma. The first stage of this dialogue took place during the National Round Table, organized by the Human Rights Project on October 3, 1998 in Sofia. This forum convened representatives of over 70 Roma organizations throughout the country, officials from the Bulgarian government, representatives of the Council of Europe and of the European Roma Rights Center. Its purpose has been to declare the will of the Roma community to be an active participant in the decision-making processes of the state, concerning the situation of Roma. At the Round Table the participants made an address to the Bulgarian government insisting that it should consider their program "For Equal Participation of Roma in the Public Life of Bulgaria" as a basic document of the Roma community, the principles of which should be incorporated in a National Program for the Roma People to be endorsed by the government after close collaboration with representatives of their as well as any other Roma organizations, who are willing to contribute to this program. The address of the participants in the round table was accepted by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Vesselin Metodiev, with a commitment to start the process of preparation of a National Program for Roma involving a large circle of Roma specialists and public figures.

The Human Rights Project expresses its belief that there is a good will on part of the government to approach the issues raised in the policy document presented by the Roma at the National Round Table with due consideration of its obligations to the international agreements for the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens, and in particular of those belonging to different minority groups. In this statement we want to point to following concerns that we have:

- to date the Bulgarian state has not recognized discrimination of Roma as being the foundation of all problems faced by this group

There is no expressed and definitive policy of the official authorities to denounce discrimination against Roma and to ensure that justice is promptly done. Combating the factual inequality of Roma as citizens of Bulgaria remains a prerogative of the formations outside the official institutions of the state. It will be an unfortunate fact if this government, which has declared its resolution to adhere to the principles of democracy, perpetuates the notorious old time definition of the Roma problem as being of socio-economic nature and therefore perpetuates the environment which ostracizes Roma.

- the public statements made by the state officials in the recent months outline an agenda for integration of Roma through their involvement in the different levels of the public administration

The position of the Human Rights Project is that the integration of Roma in Bulgarian society cannot be limited to integration in the political structures only. It has to be a global process, which spreads to all spheres of social life. This process should not be marked by the temporary partisan interests of one or another political formation. Its progress should be encoded in the agenda of state and made intact for the domination of one or another political party. Moreover, to avoid the failures of the past, this government has to implement mechanisms to neutralize the negative effects of past discrimination of Roma and to guarantee emancipation of the people as the condicio sine qua non for their integration. In order to ensure the successful integration of the Roma the Bulgarian state has to first of all guarantee that Roma people are equally treated in society and that discrimination against them is prevented by adequate legislation and efficiently functioning state bodies.

Realizing the complexity of the Roma problem in Bulgaria and with the awareness that the solution of this problem demands a national strategy transcending the mandate of one or another government, the Human Rights Project calls on the Bulgarian government to:

ensure that the legislation of the state protects Roma people from discrimination in all spheres: politics, labor, education, housing, health care, and the media;

amend the present criminal and civil laws by introducing texts, which specifically counter racism;

create state organs for the protection of the citizens from discrimination on ethnic grounds;

ensure that Roma regardless of their political affiliations participate in the development and implementation of programs aimed at providing guarantees for the real equality of the Roma.