site.btaBulgarian Helsinki Committee Annual Report Says Discrimination, Violation of Ethnic Minority, Refugee Rights Are Major Problems

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee Annual Report Says Discrimination, Violation of Ethnic Minority, Refugee Rights Are Major Problems

Sofia, March 31 (BTA) - In 2015 Bulgaria faced serious challenges in the sphere of human rights, the most important being related to discrimination and the violation of ethnic minority and refugee rights, the inhuman and degrading attitude to penitentiary residents and the freedom of expression, the 2015 Annual Report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee says. The report was presented by the Committee Chairman, Krassimir Kunev, at a BTA-hosted news conference on Thursday.

Kunev noted that the NGO's first human rights report was made in 1992 and covered 14 pages, while that for 2015 covers 170 pages. There the Committee has summarized observations in 15 human rights-related spheres, the most problematic being discrimination and ethnic minority rights, including hate speech regarding refugees, Roma and other ethnic and religious minorities. There are serious problems related to penitentiary institutions, as well as such related to the freedom of expression in the media.

The annual report finds that in 2015 the access of refugees seeking asylum in Bulgaria remained quite difficult. In the past year, the downward trend of freedom of expression in Bulgaria continued with another six steps, ranking Bulgaria 106th in the Reporters without Borders index, Kunev said. Public figures and media continued to fuel Islamophobia in 2015 and Muslim prayer sites were vandalized.