Beijing + 25 National report of the Republic of Bulgaria on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the context of the 2020 Beijing+25 Global review and 5 years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals 1 Section One: Priorities, achievements, challenges and setbacks 1. Over the last 5 years, the Republic of Bulgaria achieved a number of milestones in its progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. In the area of legislation, the Gender Equality Act (GEA) was adopted in 2016 in Bulgaria as a framework for the national policy for gender equality. It is aimed at promoting gender equality by creating the prerequisites to build an institutional environment and identifying the bodies and mechanisms implementing the national policy for gender equality. Under the GEA, the national policy for gender equality shall be based on the following principles: equal opportunities for women and men in all public, economic and political areas; equal access for women and men to all social resources; equal treatment of women and men and prevention of gender-based discrimination and violence; balanced representation of women and men in all decision-making bodies; and overcoming the gender-based stereotypes. It shall be implemented by integrating the genderequality principle into all national, regional and local policies, strategies, programmes and plans; application of provisional promotional measures; a horizontal intersectoral approach; a national institutional mechanism of cooperation between central and regional bodies of both the executive branch and civil society; and consistent and sustainable resource allocation and funding for the genderequality bodies and policy. The GEA regulates: (i) the National Gender Equality Strategy and plans thereto; (ii) the National Gender Equality Board (“National Board”); (iii) the Gender Equality Coordinators at the central and regional bodies of the executive branch; and (iv) the Badge of Distinction awarded for significant achievements in the effective implementation of the gender equality policy. It should be further noted that the GEA requires all impact assessments of all legislative decisions and strategy documents to feature an additional gender-based impact assessment and, in their implementation of the national policy for gender equality, the executive bodies to collect, store and process gender- based data for the purposes of the gender equality monitoring system. The GEA further regulates the application of provisional promotional measures — justified and proportional initiatives of a temporary nature aimed at eliminating certain obstacles to the balanced representation of women and men or to the equal treatment of any individual gender or the disadvantaged gender. The provisional promotional measures are provided for in the National Gender Equality Strategy implementation plans. They shall be applied by the executive bodies over a certain period until their balanced representation, equal opportunity and gender equality goals are achieved in the areas with identified disadvantages. These promotional measures shall be financed by the national and municipal budgets as well as by international and European sources. Enforcement of provisional promotional measures shall not constitute discrimination under the provisions of the Protection against Discrimination Act and the Gender Equality Act. Between 2014 and 2019, the Protection against Discrimination Act was amended by introducing provisions such as: the shift of the burden of proof in cases of discrimination, the inclusion of transgender cases in the definition of gender-based discrimination, the definition of indirect discrimination, unfavourable treatment and provisional promotional measures (which, under this law, shall not constitute discrimination). At the same time, Bulgaria continues its commitment to combat domestic violence. Amendments to criminal law were introduced, regulating the protection of the rights of the victims of violence, including domestic violence. These legislative changes are intended to improve the Bulgarian legislation and help prevent and adequately and fully counteract these forms of criminal behaviour and adopt the relevant international standards. The amendments were passed by the National Assembly and will be promulgated in the State Gazette. More specifically, the amendments to the Criminal Code were as follows: - a definition of the term “in the context of domestic violence” was created; - the corpus delicti of homicide and assault was supplemented to incriminate all forms of domestic violence escalating to an assault on the life or health of any person; - domestic violence was elevated as a constituent element of a number of offences—aiding and 2 abetting a person to commit suicide, abduction, false imprisonment, coercion, criminal threat; - intimidation was also elevated to a criminal offence, since until now the effective Bulgarian legislation did not provide adequate penalties against perpetrators who, by repeated threatening behaviour against a person, instilled in that person fear for their own safety or the safety of their family and friends; - further amendments are expected to be introduced, making certain violent crimes prosecutable without complaint by the victim; - more comprehensive and effective protection is provided for potential victims of forced marriages, who are usually members of migrant and/or ethnic minority communities and who may be obligated by their family to leave their country of residence and get married in their family’s country of origin in adherence to their community’s cultural values; - higher penalties are proposed for repeated violations of court orders or domestic violence related restraining orders to provide more substantial and timely protection of the victims and reinforce the preventive effect of the penalty. It should also be noted that, under Article 6, Paragraph 7 of the Protection against Domestic Violence Act (PDVA), the Ministry of Justice budget every year allocates funding for non-profit entities’ projects for the development and implementation of domestic violence prevention and protection programmes under the same law. Priority funding objectives are the analysis of the problem of domestic violence through monitoring of the application of the legislation, sensitising the young people to the problem through prevention and protection programmes at school, increasing the competence of the judiciary to enforce domestic-violence protection measures and provide timely and adequate protection to the victims of domestic violence and the persons providing protection under the PDVA, protection, recovery and reintegration of victims of domestic violence, and services involving work with perpetrators of domestic violence aimed at providing quality service to the victims and preventing recurrent domestic violence. In 2016, the Financial Compensation and Support to Victims of Crime Act (FCSVCA) was substantially amended and supplemented to elaborate the existing legislation on the rights of victims of crime, including by introducing the requirements of Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA. Some of the more important changes were as follows: - in order to raise victims’ awareness of their rights to receive support and financial compensation from the state, the scope of the bodies, organisations and persons providing such information was expanded; - free access to organisations providing free psychological counselling and practical support was made available to all victims of crime; - the scope of the serious offences against the person eligible for financial compensation from the state was expanded to include attempted murder and repeal the requirement for sexual assault and rape to be eligible for financial compensation only where serious injuries were inflicted; - the size of the financial compensation was increased to BGN 10,000 for all eligible persons under the law and where its recipients are minors, it is up to BGN 10,000 for each eligible individual; - the adoption of rules for the application of the FCSVCA to elaborate and detail its underlying basics. The Rules for the Application of the FCSVCA (RAFCSVCA) were adopted by Council of Ministers’ Decree No 373 of 22.12.2016 (Promulgated SG No 103 of 27 December 2016). Regulated thereunder were the terms and procedure for financing free psychological counselling and support as well as the provision of shelter or other suitable temporary housing provided by law to victims of crime, for whom an immediate risk of secondary and repeated victimisation, intimidation and retaliation exists. Shelter or other suitable temporary housing to victims of crime is provided: - by victim support organisations for a period of ten days; - immediately, at a safe location away from the usual residence of the victim of crime; - in the cases where such measure has not been already applied under another law or regulation, e.g. 3 the Combat Human Trafficking Act, the Protection of Persons under Threat Related to Criminal Proceedings Act, the Child Protection Act. A clear and visible example of Bulgaria’s achievements in women’s empowerment is the active involvement of women in politics and their leadership in high-profile careers. In the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2017, Bulgaria was ranked 18 among