site.btaJustice Minister Proposes Abolition of Interdiction

Bulgarian Justice Minister Atanas Slavov will propose draft legislation abolishing interdiction (legal incapacitation) that is to be enacted by the end of 2023 or in early 2024.

Slavov specified that the text of the bill has been drafted and has passed through various stages. "We have understanding at the Ministry of Justice that we will raise the subject again. This is a huge social problem and a problem concerning human rights," he said.

"We will be ready to go ahead with the bill and so how current it is. It seems to me that tabling it at the National Assembly by the end of this year or at the beginning of this year is realistic," the Justice Minister said.

Slavov took part in a discussion on the "Quality of Psychiatric Care and the Rights of People with Mental Health Problems in Bulgaria: Challenges and Solutions," organized here on Wednesday by Stela Nikolova MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria. The forum focused on the state of psychiatric care, the access to social support of people with mental health problems and the effective protection of their rights.

Under Article 5 of the Persons and Family Act, minors and adults who are unable to look after their own interests on account of mental illness or mental deficiency are declared full interdicts, whereas adults with milder forms of such disorders are declared limited interdicts. Full interdicts are placed under full guardianship, whereas limited interdicts are placed under partial guardianship. Persons under partial guardianship may not perform legal transactions without their guardian's consent. They may, however, carry out ordinary acts forming part of everyday life and have access to the resources obtained in consideration for their work. Accordingly, the guardian of a limited interdict cannot independently perform legal transactions that are binding on that person. This means that contracts signed only by the guardian, without the consent of the limited interdict, are invalid.