MINELRES: Bulgaria: The Government Worked out its Action Plan for the Roma Minority but it Rises Number of Questions

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Original sender: Emil Cohen <emilcohen@mbox.cit.bg> 


HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT*


PRESS RELEASE


Bulgaria: The Government Worked out its Action Plan for the Roma
Minority but it Rises Number of Questions

Sofia, October 16, 03 - Last Friday (on October 10th) the final version
of the Bulgarian Government�s Action Plan for Implementation of the
Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma in the Bulgarian Society
for the Period October 03 � December 04 became known. The Plan was
approved by Decision � 693 of Council of Ministers dated October 6th, 03
although it was announced by the Information Service of the Government
that the Action Plan was approved on September 25th. 

As it has been said before the very fact that for first time the
Government approved a special Action Plan for activities in favor of
Roma minority should be welcomed. Together with the recently adopted by
the Parliament Protection against Discrimination Act it presents a step
in a right direction. 

The Action Plan is an extensive document and a lot of measures are
included in it. It begins with short introduction in which the aims and
tasks of the paper are described. In that preface is written that
�Namely toward elimination of the unequal status of Roma community are
directed the concrete measures in the Action Plan that outlines in short
term perspective the acts of the state�s institutions�. It should be
admired that the Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma in the
Bulgarian Society is recognized as a basis for elaboration of the Plan.
The Government says the Program should be concretized and that Plan is
the first attempt for implementation of that intention of it. As it is
well known the Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma in the
Bulgarian Society was created by Human Rights Project in 1998. It was
supported by more than 75 Roma organizations throughout the country and
on April 22, 1999 was approved by the then Government. 

The Action Plan follows but not completely the parts of the Framework
Program and contains eight sections. For instance, there is not a part
devoted to the Roma women; nevertheless such a part exists in the
Framework Program. Instead of this a part designed for the strengthening
of the administrative capacity of the National Council on Ethnic and
Demographic Issues combined with the issue for increasing the
participation of Roma in such institutional structures as Police and
Public Administration is included. Below a short description of the most
important points of the Action Plan is made:

- It would be welcomed that there is a big section on the implementation
of the anti-discrimination legislation in the Action Plan. Some measures
for an education of policemen in using the anti-discrimination
legislation are provided among the others. Beside this an introduction
of obligatory rules for an anti-discriminatory behavior in the job
descriptions of the schoolteachers is provided to be done as well as
introduction of anti-discriminatory clauses in the school ordinances. 

- Most of the money is provided to be spent for measures devoted to
combat the unemployment among long term unemployed people including Roam
ones. It is provided that 78 383 persons will be secured with job and by
that way they will stop to be long-term jobless. 

- In the section devoted on the health service the main proposal is that
the Plan provides that some GP should be opened in 15 cities. Also
programs for health education of Roma are provided to be made and to be
carried out in seven big cities. 

- In the sphere of education the most significant innovation among many
proposals is that starting with the current school year the position of
the assistant teacher will be made legitimated. Now the chiefs of the
schools can�t hire assistant teachers because there is not such a
position in the establishment of the schools. By 1,2 millions of BGN
(approximately 600 000 EUR) � for all of the country � the directors of
the schools will get a possibility to employ assistant teachers. They
should give assistance to the teachers in the education because a lot of
Roma children do not know enough Bulgarian language. Also a sum of 2
millions BGN (around 1 million EUR) is provided for free of charge
textbooks for the second grade children or as it is written in the
Action Plan �ensuring of free of charge textbooks for all poor children,
including the Roma ones�.

- For improvement of the house conditions of Roma is provided 284 houses
in Plovdiv to be built. Beside this according to agreements with PHARE
and UNDP an infrastructure in the Roma neighbors of four cities should
be improved. 

- In the field of culture small amount of money (55 000 BGN, that is
around 25 000 EUR) will be spent for �support for celebration of
traditional Roma holidays�. 


The total value of the measures that are provided to be implemented in
the Action Plan is 271199 431 BGN (around 135 millions EUR), 76 000 GBP,
13 865 500 EURO and 32 600 USD. This really is an impressive amount of
money. For comparison the total amount of money spent for different Roma
programs by the Bulgarian Government was around 12 millions EURO for
2002 (for more details see the Annual Report of Human Rights Project,
available on the WEB site of the Greek Helsinki Monitor at address:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balkanhr/message/5579 ). At first glance
the increasing of the money should be spent is more than 10 times. But
this amount deserves to look at it more carefully. 

What immediately can be seen is that the biggest part of the total sum,
namely 217 millions BGN are designed for covering the expenses in 2003
related to the national program �From Social Benefits toward
Employment�. It is three year�s plan whose aim is to decrease the number
of unemployed persons who rely only on the state�s social benefits. That
program is not Roma one. It is true that significant part of the
beneficiaries of that program are Roma but neither the design of it nor
its implementation are especially devoted to Roma. The same is the
situation with the program �Beautiful Bulgaria�. The sum of 28 millions
BGN (around 14 millions EUR) should be given for an implementation of
that program. But it is not Roma program as well. The fact that big
parts of the people who use and will use the favors of these two
programs are Roma does not transforms them into plans especially devoted
to the resolution of the problems of Roma minority. As it well known the
number of very poor people in our country is too big and a lot of them
are not Roma. By the way in the text of the Action Plan is written in
the section �target group�: �for long time unemployed persons (including
Roma)�. The same expression is used and in the section that describes
�Beautiful Bulgaria� program when the target group is clarified. 

Furthermore it must be noted that for such important task as an
elaboration of plans for regulation of the space in the Roma neighbors
are separated hardly 10 000 BGN. For everyone it is obviously that for
the execution of the task for regulation of spaces in the Roma neighbors
much more money should be separated. 

As for the education that is the most significant priority for the
future of the Roma community it should be noted that the sum of 6
millions BGN (around 3 millions EUR) that was provided for creating of
fund for desegregation of the Roma schools in the draft of the Action
Plan discussed on September 15th lacks in the final version. By that way
the process of mass desegregation of the Roma schools again is postponed
for undefined future. The creation of that fund is a precondition, which
a lot of international donors put before the Government. They are ready
to give money for increasing of that fund but only if prior to this
Bulgaria establishes it. The official explanation for the disappearance
of this money is that the Ministry of Finance does not allow this amount
to be given. In the same time the total budget separated for education
is more than one billion BGN. If that explanation is true one it is mean
that the political will of the Government is not enough in order to
overcome the position of the Ministry of Finance. Also there are not
money allocated for transportation of the Roma children to the
integrated schools. As it is well known the transportation is key
element in the process of desegregation. Furthermore such as it was done
in the section on ensuring employment and there the sum of 2 millions
BGN for textbooks for second grade children is not especially for the
Roma children.

We want to believe that after the statements the Prime Minister Simeon
Saxe Coburg Gotha made at the July�s Budapest summit the Government will
find sufficient political will to act in the spirit of that summit. We
hope in close future the Government will realize the significance of the
desegregation of the so-called �Roma schools� as a key element in the
entire policy for an improvement of the Roma education. 

The critical examination of the Action Plan can go on because the paper
is really extensive one. But there we want only to stress on the
circumstance that no changes in the current legislation are provided.
For example no progress can be done in the sphere of health service
without appropriate changes in the legislation. If the trends in the
health insurance legislation we are watching now go on after the
beginning of next year tens of thousands Roma will be deprived from
health service. (Recently it was announced that from the beginning of
the next year all people who have not paid regularly their payments to
the National Health Insurance Institute would be deprived from access to
the GP. As it is well known big part of the Roma have not health
insurance because they have been for long time unemployed or because
have not have an address registration.) The same is the situation in the
sphere of the regulation of the spaces in the Roma neighbors. The number
of examples in that direction can be increased. 

May be the main reason for the shortcomings in the Action Plan was the
drive of Government a decisive advancement to the solving of the
so-called �Roma issue� to be noted by the public. Probably the
aspiration for a positive assessment on the part of the European
Commission also have been influenced on the terms (as it well known the
term was too short) of an elaboration and on the content of the Action
Plan.

Human Rights Project expressing again its positive opinion on the very
fact of creation of such plan calls on the Government in future to work
out its plans for Roma much more carefully. In the same time:


we would like to believe that in close future the Government would
invest much political will in the process of elaboration of similar
plans; 


we hope that when it begins to work out on the further Action Plan more
consultations (as it is known the bigger part of the members of the
Sub-commission on Roam issues of the National Council on Ethnic and
Demographic Issues got copies of the Action Plan in the day when they
had to express their opinion on the document and for more details see
the Press Release of HRP dated October 8th) with the Roma public will be
carried out; 


we hope also that a profound analysis of the needs of the Roma community
would be done prior the elaboration of the further plan. 


On behalf of HRP:


Emil Cohen


_____________


*Human Rights Project was established in the summer of 1992 as a
non-profit organization focusing on monitoring the human rights
situation of the Roma in Bulgaria, and on legal defense in cases of
serious human rights abuses. The HRP monitors the human rights situation
of the Roma community in Bulgaria and reports on the cases which it had
investigated; works with Roma volunteers from all over the country who
report on the human rights observation in their region; conduct
independent extrajudicial investigation into allegations of human rights
violations against Roma; hire lawyers to take up selected cases and
monitors the process of legal defense; advocates legislative and policy
changes in favor of Roma.


Ivan Ivanov is Chair of the Board of HRP. 


Dimitrina Petrova, Dimitar Georgiev, Mitio Kemalov and Rumian Russinov
are members of the Board.


Emil Cohen emilcohen@mbox.cit.bg is Executive Director.


Our address: 23 Solunska St., 6th floor, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria


Tel./fax: (+359 2) 986 35 46 and (+359 2) 981 50 66;

E-mail: hrproject@mbox.cit.bg and hrp@netel.bg