The UN has declared 25 November International Day for the Elimination of Violence and 10 December – Human Rights Day. In-between these two dates, since 1991 the world organization has been conducting an information campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence”.

The message the UN wants to convey is that violence against women is a violation of human rights. This year the campaign is mottoed “From peace in the home to peace in the world”. The world initiative is also connected with the ratification of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence adopted by the Council of Europe and EU member countries in Istanbul in 2011. There have been 21 ratifications to date, among them by Bosnia Herzegovina, Turkey, Denmark, Finland etc.

“Bulgaria has not signed or ratified the convention,” says in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Iliana Stoycheva, Executive Director of the Alliance for Protection against Gender-based Violence and explains:

“A sufficient number of state-financed crisis centres and shelters must be opened,” she says. “I think that is the reason why the convention has not been signed. Another reason is that amendments must be made to the Penal Code that would incriminate the act of domestic violence. The convention also requires the incrimination of the act and the abettors of early marriages which is a problem for Bulgaria. The state must also make efforts to support the consultative centres and to support NGOs on a permanent basis. At the moment this support is for given projects by outside donors over very short periods of time.”

In 1993 Bulgaria joined the “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” initiative organized by the non-governmental sector. “Much has been done for protecting women and children against violence, still a lot is left to be desired,” Iliana Stoycheva goes on to say.

“Last year the Alliance for Protection against Gender-based Violence with 11 organizations from all over the country as members, provided services to over 4,000 women and children, victims of violence,” she says. “More than 1,000 women and children were accommodated at crisis centres. Under the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence some 700 cases reported by the Alliance organizations have been tried in court.”

Iliana Stoycheva explains that the number of consultations provided to women and children has been going up in recent years. Unfortunately, there are no official statistics in Bulgaria regarding the number of women, children and men subjected to domestic violence – the law is neutral in terms of gender. But the fact there are more consultations now does not automatically mean the number of victims is up as well. According to Iliana Stoycheva with every passing year, more and more victims of violence are willing to seek help and describe what they have been through. The people from the Alliance for Protection against Gender-based Violence have been using the campaign to set state bodies higher requirements benefiting society. To provide: legal aid to gender-based victims of violence at the earliest stage possible, including victims of trafficking; support to programmes for the most vulnerable risk groups and victims of domestic and other forms of gender-based violence, such as women and children from minorities as well as people with disabilities and migrants. Other requirements include the adoption of legislation and policies aimed at combating discrimination and gender-based stereotypes unflaggingly.

English Milena Daynova