Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation - Projects page

Advocacy campaign for promotion of the right to free legal protection of women in court in cases of domestic violence

This is a follow-up project of the “Women’s Rights Step by Step” training program of OSI, New York and Women, Law and Development Int’l, implemented in 1999 in partnership with 4 Bulgarian NGOs as a coordinator.

 Project goals:

• to expand the understanding and raise the awareness of the Bulgarian society on the issues of violence against women as a violation of women’s human rights;
• to disseminate basic knowledge of human rights among women’s groups, media, police, social services;
• to run a campaign for free legal aid of women-victims of domestic violence.

Publications:

• How to help victims of violence: manual for police officers;
• How to help victims of violence: manual for social workers;
• How to help victims of violence: manual for medical personnel.

Major results:

• Increased awareness on the issue among professional groups involved in cases of violence against women;
• Recommendations for changes in legislation were formulated and an initiative for drafting a special law for protection against domestic violence was launched.

The project entered as a case study in the book “Becoming women’s rights advocates”, published by WLDI and launched at the Beijing+5 Special Session of the UN in June 2000 in New York.

01 February 1999