EU-Report Accession Bulgaria
Bulgaria continues to respect human rights and freedoms. This
was the conclusion of the 1997 Opinion and the subsequent Regular Reports, and has been confirmed
over the past year. The following section focuses on the most significant developments since the
last Regular Report.
Bulgaria has acceded to the main human rights conventions (see annex). The Bulgarian
Constitution incorporates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms in Bulgarian law, and accords the Convention supremacy over domestic
legislation. In practice, there are hardly any cases of direct application of the
Convention's provisions or of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.
The principle of anti-discrimination is enshrined in the Bulgarian Constitution (Article 6).
So far, however, comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation has still not been adopted and the
EC anti-discrimination acquis has still not been transposed (see Chapter 13 Social policy and
employment).
The introduction of the institution of Ombudsman has now been under discussion for almost four
years, and legislation (in the form of several different draft laws) has been before Parliament
since November 2000, but has still not been adopted. Projects are under way in some
municipalities. A Public Mediator was appointed in Sofia in 2001, and there are local ombudsmen
in some other cities.
Subsections
© EU Commission -- 2003-03-30
|
