A. Contribution of the civil society to the UPR process
Q. 1. Has there been a UPR report by one or more national NGOs coalitions in your country?
A. Yes, Several NGOs submitted NGO reports for the 1st UPR of Bulgaria in 2010.
Q. 2. Have authorities in your country favorably welcomed NGO interventions on the UPR?
A. Yes
Q. 3. Do the recommendations by the Human Rights Council reflect those submitted by NGOs?
A. Yes, fully. As a result of the lobbying at place in Geneva (October – November 2010), the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and the Alliance for protection against domestic violence, in total 15 recommendations in the field of gender equality, protection against violence and trafficking an elimination of gender stereotypes were made by different States (those are also our recommendations). We are very satisfied. After that the Bulgarian Government accepted all these recommendations.
Q. 4. Have you had the opportunity to contribute to an NGO or NGO coalition report for the UPR?
A.Yes. Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and the Alliance for protection against domestic violence
B. Participation to the UPR session in Geneva and follow-up in your country
Q. 1. Have you been able to follow the session of the Working Group of the Human Rights Council reviewing your country?
A. Yes. It was unique experience and very useful one. We congratulated the delegates who used our recommendations and we spoke informally with the Bulgarian representative – the Minister of Foreign affairs.
Q. 2. Have you taken part to activities in your country to present the results of its UPR?
A.Yes. We made meetings with representatives of the Swiss, UK and Spanish embassy in Sofia. Those embassies helped a lot prior to the UPR of Bulgaria, because they forwarded our recommendations to their capitals. We will write also an article about the results of the UPR. The representatives of the embassies can lobby for gender
Q. 3. Have you incorporated UPR and its results for your country in your sensitization?
A. Yes. We use now the UPR and its results for lobbying Bulgarian politicians for the adoption of Legislation on gender equality in Bulgaria. We will make a short training module on UPR for the IV session of our Women’s Human Rights Training Institute in May 2011. This training is for young lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe and CIS.
Q. 4. During yours activities, Do you provide an introduction on international instruments of law ratified and implemented by your country?
A. Very often, because it is good justification and argument to hold governments accountable.
Q. 5. In my country and relating to the implementation and follow-up of UPR, I exert some influence on :
a) your circles
A. Yes
b) decision makers
A. Yes. We lobby directly with arguments from the UPR for our lobbying on domestic violence issues and gender equality.
Q. 6. Did you asked your country’s competent authorities that human rights be included in school programs?
A. Yes. We, and other NGOs would like to see that in the reality, and ask and lobby for that from years. But the education system is very stable and conservative and it is hard to make changes. We have human rights education projects, we sensitize the media and the society about that need, but without result until now.
Q. 7. Do you actively participate to sensitization activities in your place of work in order to promote human rights education?
A. Yes. We develop and implement projects for young people for human rights education, promotion and awareness on social rights, we develop methodologies for non-formal education on those issues
C. Internal and external support
Q. 1. Do you get support by the authorities for your efforts in promoting human rights education and awareness about UPR ?
A. Never
Q. 2. Do you work in a social and political context which makes it difficult to sensitize/educate on human rights?
A. Rarely The political and social context are not a problem, but the funding for those activities in Bulgaria is very low.
Q. 3. You get support for intending to introduce UPR and human rights in your activities mainly from :
A. UPR is new procedure and we haven’t had chance regularly in our activities to promote it
Q. 4. You encounter resistance to it mainly from:
A. Not manifestations of resistance yet, because UPR is new procedure and we haven’t had chance regularly in our activities to promote it
Q. 5. Are CIFEDHOP’s resources and its network of experts useful for your human rights education and UPR follow-up activities?
A. Very often
D. Interactive and remote participation to human rights education and UPR
Q. 1. Are you registered for the UPR monitoring platform ?
A.
Q. 2. How the UPR monitoring platform would best address your needs?
A.
Q. Has there been a UPR report by one or more national NGOs coalitions in your country?
A. Yes. In Bulgaria 3 citizen coalitions presented reports addressed to UPR.
Q. Have authorities in your country favorably welcomed NGO interventions on the UPR?
A. Yes. There was no campaign focused on UPR opportunity in my country and a lot of citizen activist, NGOs and even representatives of public institutions are not familiar with. The authorized institutions was Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is open toward work with non-governmental organizations.
Q. Do the recommendations by the Human Rights Council reflect those submitted by NGOs?
A. Yes. 95% of recommendations that we together (Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and Alliance for Protection against Domestic Violence) resented and advocated in Geneva. This is due to the opportunity to attend to the training, access to Human Rights Council and to lobby. Me and my colleagues are thankful to all partners from Geneva for their professional advices, training and all technical and financial support.
Q. Have you had the opportunity to contribute to an NGO or NGO coalition report for the UPR? If yes, please state the name of the NGO or NGO coalition.
A. Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation in cooperation with Alliance for Protection against Domestic Violence and Minnesota Human Rights Advocators presented a shadow report focused on Bulgarian situation of women’s rights (equal gender opportunity), domestic violence, media stereotypes toward women and access to health care.
Q. Have you been able to follow the session of the Working Group of the Human Rights Council reviewing your country? If yes, how? If no, why?
A. Yes. Bulgarian UPR session was on 4th November 2010 and due to the EIP support we had the opportunity to observe the Working Group session.
Q. Have you taken part to activities in your country to present the results of its UPR? If yes, briefly describe how. If no, shortly explain why.
A. Yes. I presented the mechanism UPR and the result of the campaign in the International Women’s Rights Institute last week in Varna (19-23 May, 2011) and I am in the process of preparation of an article about that would be published in Bulgarian and in English.
Q. Have you incorporated UPR and its results for your country in your sensitization, information or human rights and peace education activities? If yes, briefly describe how. If no, shortly explain why.
A. In regular publication of the BGRF and provided detailed information to foreign diplomats in Sofia – especially to those of them who supported our causes.
Q. In your country and relating to the implementation and follow-up of UPR, dou you exert some influence ? If yes, briefly describe how. If no, shortly explain why.
A. a) On my circles. Yes. Among my closed friends who are jurists and colleagues from NGOs.
b) On decision makers Yes. In serial of working meetings with a member of the Parliament in Bulgaria, who is from the ruling party in Bulgaria. Now we are working on interdisciplinary research focused on equal gender opportunities in Bulgaria and in mid of September we are going to organize a round table focused on implementation of accepted UPR recommendations toward gender equality and also accepted EU strategy for Gender Equality (2010-2015) and members of parliament, diplomats and experts will be invited.
Q. Did you ask your country’s competent authorities that human rights be included in school programs and other educational activities ? If yes, briefly describe how.
A. No
Q. Do you actively participate to sensitization activities in your place of work in order to promote human rights education ? If yes, briefly describe how. If no, shortly explain why.
A. No. I wouldn’t do that but I am opened to start such initiative because I am supporter of the idea that human rights education has to be part of civil education in every one school.
Q. CIFEDHOP’s resources and its network of experts are useful for my human rights education and UPR follow-up activities.
A. Very often. I am very thankful for that opportunity to be among all trainees and appreciate the opportunity to discuss with expert and to share the experience.