The
Advocates for Human Rights and the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation
(BGRF) are pleased to announce the release of a new publication, Implementation
of the Bulgarian Law on Protection against Domestic Violence: A Human
Rights Report (April 2008). On March 16, 2005, Bulgaria passed a
new law to combat domestic violence. Since then, thousands of victims of
domestic violence have come forward to use the law to obtain protection
against their abusers. In 2006 alone, more than 2,000 cases of domestic
violence under the new law were brought before the courts, resulting in 800
orders for protection.
Throughout 2007, The
Advocates' Women's Human Rights Program and BGRF conducted human
rights monitoring to investigate implementation of the law by all
principals, including the state, police, judges, prosecutors, media and NGOs.
This report presents the findings and makes recommendations to improve
implementation of the law. The report was produced with the support of the
Oak Foundation and UNIFEM.
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