site.btaFoundations Provide Free Legal Support to 580 Victims of Domestic Violence in 3 Years

Under the "In Defence of Human Rights" project, over three years foundations have provided free legal support to a total of 580 victims of domestic and gender-based violence, with a focus on women and girls of Roma origin. This was announced on Monday by lawyer Milena Kadieva from the "YES - united against violence" foundation. The work on the project was carried out in partnership with the foundations "Animus Association", "Fund for Crime Prevention IGA" and "Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights".  The project is funded by the Active Citizens Fund - Bulgaria under the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.

The aim of the project was to improve the implementation of international human rights standards, to conduct campaigns to raise awareness about human rights, including by involving young people, and to provide legal assistance and counselling for victims of discrimination and human rights violations, Kadieva explained. She said there are a huge number of victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking, and Bulgaria's legislation in these three areas is not effectively implemented.

Through the "In Defence of Human Rights" project, a number of activities have been carried out aimed at directly assisting victims, training law enforcers and raising public awareness on these issues. Over three years, from July 2021 to April 2024, the team has conducted three specialized support programmes for victims of domestic and gender-based violence, focusing on women and girls of Roma origin, and provided legal and psychological support to 400 victims. Training has been provided on the establishment of the specialized programmes for victims of domestic and gender-based violence with a focus on Roma women and girls, four trainings in the field have been held and 124 professionals have been trained. Three videos on gender-based violence have been produced and three monitoring reports prepared.

The project is implemented with financial support of EUR 154,000 from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA Financial Mechanism.