Bulgarian Helsinki Committee

Amidst a concerning trend, Bulgaria grapples with an alarming surge in unaccompanied children seeking refuge within its borders. The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) disclosed a staggering number—over 3,400 unaccompanied minors have sought protection in Bulgaria since the start of 2023.

Gabriela Bankova, a transgender woman who initiated a hunger strike on November 13 to challenge the court's denial of her gender change request, was apprehended by Bulgarian police due to the absence of valid identification papers.

The pro-Russian party "Vazrazhdane" should be declared unconstitutional and dissolved - this is what the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee insists in an open letter, together with its co-signatories and a total of 121 people with a civil position who supported it, "Dnevnik" reported.

"In 2022, freedom of expression in Bulgaria was subjected to new abuses in the conditions of a full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine.

A refugee family in Edirne, Turkey in March 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Thirty-six of the people who were arrested are Syrian and one is from Morocco. They have been sent to refugee centres.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) building in Strasbourg, France. Photo: EPA-EFE.

The court said that Bulgaria must pay Stoyanova 7,000 euros in damages and 3,183.90 euros for costs and expenses for violating the European Convention on Human Rights.

Amnesty International has strongly criticised a call for Bulgaria's Prosecutor-General, Sotir Tsatsarov, to dissolve the country's biggest human rights group, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, BHC, describing it as "an unprecedented attempt to silence independent and critical voices by the authorities".

Bulgaria's Grand Mufti's Office called on the police on Friday to investigate an attack on its office in the capital, Sofia, as a "hate crime".

The windows of the building in central Sofia were smashed with stones by an unknown person on Thursday, three days after swastikas and other hate symbols were scratched onto a mosque in the central town of Karlovo on July 2.

The delegates at ILGA-Europe's 22nd Annual Conference, held in Brussels between October 24th and 27th, designated Sofia to host the largest political LGBTI forum in Europe in 2020. So the capital becomes the first European city to host the ILGA-Europe Annual Conference for the second time!

"In 2017, there has been a stagnation in the protection of human rights in Bulgaria, with some areas deteriorating: the authorities and the public sphere have been deaf for human rights and civil society has failed to raise concerns about major issues and this task stands on the agenda in 2018.