By Mel O’Brien
The country reports of Bulgaria and Jamaica were addressed at the end of the first week of the 52nd session of CEDAW. Both states worked quite hard to answer all the questions of the Committee.
In the case of Bulgaria, there have been quite a lot of new laws promulgated recently, as well as the establishment of a Commission on Protection Against Discrimination. The news laws include one on anti-discrimination (including gender, race, etc). In 2005, a domestic violence law was passed, which has also been amended in 2009 and 2010. The Penal Code also offers domestic violence protection, including provisions for violation of protection orders, and others on general crimes such as assault and murder. In addition, there are new hate crime provisions in the Penal Code, and new legislation against trafficking in persons. The government is in the process of amending the Penal Code further (for 2012 or 2013), including the removal of provisions that outlaw ‘crimes against sexual morality’, and the ability of rapists to avoid punishent by marrying their victims.
One of the ongoing concerns of the Committee through all of the issues was the issue of Roma women. In 2012, the Bulgarian government launched a National Strategy for the Integration of the Roma, and this focuses on prevention of discrimination and hate crimes, including against Roma women. The Strategy has two timeframes of application, the first from 2012 to 2015, the next from 2016 to 2020.