On the 30th November 2011 the Commission for Protection against Discrimination held its conclusive National conference on the ‘Equality – A Road to Progress’ Project funded by the European Community Program for employment and social solidarity – PROGRESS (2007-2013) which had been implemented in cooperation with Open Society Institute and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affaires.
The event allowed the presentation of three analytical modules on law against discrimination which had been developed within the process of project implementation and dedicated respectively to civil and criminal law responses to discirmination. The second group of issues was divided in two and profiled respectively for the professional communities of magistrates (judges, prosecutors and investigators) and investigation police officers.
The three modules satisfy the monographic type of scientific research. They contain a total number of 50 specialized analytical publications together with methodologies for practical interactive trainings, all of which are dedicated to:
- the nature, social roots and social impact of discrimination and the phenomena which are related to it;
- a comprehensive study of the enforced civil, administrative and criminal national, international and EU law together with the practice, based on it, which had been developed by Bulgarian and foreign courts and international jurisdictions (ECHR and CEU) and committees which are established with international organisations or on international conventional bases. A significant part of the analyses relate to fundamental issues of human rights, interactions of national and supranational legal systems, etc.;
- social and institutional role of the various professions that are charged with prevention and protection against discrimination.
The modules were elaborated by a broad expert team of 34 representatives of the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, court system (Supreme Court of Cassation and Supreme Administrative Court), the Supreme Prosecution Office of Cassation, the National Investigation Office, structures with the Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Council of Lawyers, science and education institutions (Ministry of Interior Academy, National Institute of Justice, Institute for Forensic Psychology with the Ministry of Interior, Center for Education of Lawyers), non-government organisations which are specialised in protection of human rights (Bulgarian Lawyers for human Rights, Bulgarian Helzinki Committee), professional associations (Association of Bulgarian Prosecutors, Association of psycholoysts) and research centers (Justice Development Foundation).
Within the framework of the broad team an authors’ team had been established which had been responsible for the direct development of the modules. It contained 23 narrow specialists – practitioners and researchers – working in the area of legal theory, administration of justice and protection of rights, forensic psychology and psychiatry, criminology and other humanitarian science.
The JDF participated with a team of 10 experts, six of whom authors (Iva Pushkarova, PhD, Petya Popova, Vladimir Velinov, Zhivko Zhelev, Ivo Emanuilov, Radka Stoyanova) that elaborated as many as 20 publications individually or in co-authorship, one member of the broad team (N. Gunchev) and three scientific editors (Martin Belov, PhD, Hristo Hristev, PhD, and Stoyan Stavru, PhD).
The full text of the modules in Bulgarian is available at Violence and Discrimination Section of the Library.
