Bulgaria: Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 13:07:42 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Bulgaria: Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Human Rights Project <[email protected]>

Bulgaria: Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma


On April 7, 1999 at a National Round Table, co-organized by the Human
Rights Project and the National Council for the Ethnic and Demographic
Issues (NCEDI) at Bulgarian Council of Ministers, the Roma community
and the government, represented by the Chair of NCEDI, Deputy Prime
Minister, Vesselin Metodiev, signed an agreement over the Framework
Program for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society. According
to this agreement in two weeks from its signing, Mr. Vesselin Metodiev
will introduce the Program to the Bulgarian Council of Ministers for
its endorsement as a state document by an act of the Council of
Ministers. This agreement has finalized the negotiations between a
working group of Roma, including representatives of the Human Rights
Project, United Romani Union and the Confederation of Roma in
Bulgaria, and officials from NCEDI, which reached a consensus over the
Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society
on March 24, 1999.
 
This agreement has legitimized a political document for the state
policy towards Roma, which was created by Roma themselves, and has
marked the first act of recognition by the officials in Bulgaria of
the will of the Roma minority to be an equal participant in the
decision-making processes. Human rights activists in Bulgaria called
the agreement "the most significant accomplishment of the human rights
movement in Central and Eastern Europe".
 
Major issues of the Framework Program for Equal Participation of Roma
in Bulgarian Society are:
 
- legislation changes for prevention of discrimination and racism;
- establishment of a state body for prevention of discrimination on
ethnic basis and for prevention of police brutality. This body will be
set up by a law within a year of the endorsement of the National
Program. Its members will be elected by Bulgarian Parliament. It will
be based in Sofia and will have regional subdivisions. Its staff will
proportionately represent the ethnic composition of the respective
regions;
- establishment of a state fund for supporting businesses which employ
Roma;
- legalization of Roma houses through amendments in the Territorial
Development Act;
- desegregation of the schools in the Roma neighborhoods;
- elimination of the practice to send normal Roma children to
"special" schools for mentally retarded;
- special measures to counteract racism in the class-room;
- positive action in support of Roma applicants at the universities;
- introduction of Roma history and culture in the textbooks for all
levels of the Bulgarian school;
- support for the authentic Roma folklore and for the Roma cultural
institutions;
- guarantees for the equal participation of Roma in the public
electronic media and in the press.

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