The Law on Protection against Discrimination  (September 2003, in force since January 2004), aims at transposing inter alia the acquis on equality of treatment for women and men, including the acquis on pregnant workers, parental leave, equal pay, equal treatment in employment and burden of proof. It introduces a system of sanctions and establishes a Commission for protection against discrimination as an independent body which reports to the National Assembly. The Commission is comprised of nine persons. The National Assembly selected 5 and the President of the Republic four members of the Commission. This Commission appointed permanent panels, dealing amongst others with ethnic and racial discrimination and gender equality. Some of the activities of the Commission for protection against discrimination  include establishing breaches and imposing sanctions in accordance with the Law; making proposals to the Executive powers and local self-government institutions to annul laws issued in contravention of the Law; appealing administrative laws enacted in contravention of this Law; providing information to persons about their rights and obligations laid down by this Law and, at their request, providing funding for their protection etc.

However, the law still remains not very popular and people are not much informed about their rights to submit complaints in the Commission and in court. The Commission needs to straighten its administrative capacity and to establish regional offices in order to popularize its work out of the capital and to raise awareness of people about the legal grounds for protection against discrimination.

The Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings (May 2003, in force since January 2004) introduces measures to prevent trafficking, improve co-ordination between state bodies and NGOs and protect the victims of illegal trafficking in human beings. The law is drawn up in line with the UN Convention against transnational organized crime and its supplementing Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Both have been ratified by Bulgaria. The National Border Police and the National Service for Combating Organized Crime are mandated to fight trafficking. The Law envisages the establishment of a National Commission with the Government and chaired by a deputy prime minister. According to the law the National Commission should set up local commissions with the municipalities, chaired by deputy mayors.  The National and the local commissions will coordinate the interrelation between the different agencies and develop programs for the implementation of the Law on national and local level.

However, so far little progress has been achieved in the implementation of the tasks of the above-mentioned newly adopted bodies. For example, the creation of the local commissions envisaged by the Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings a year and a half after its adoption does not exist. At the same, according to the recently adopted (July 2006) by the government National Programme on Overcoming and Counteracting Trafficking in People and Protection of Victims in 2006 local commissions for combating trafficking in people will be set up in 4 municipalities in risk regions in the country by the end of 2006. Another problem is the still vague system of correlation between the different institutions that are established, as well as their funding, as well as lack of services, financed by the state budget for the reintegration of victims of trafficking.

In addition, in August 2006, the Penal Code was amended and punishments for traffickers who have not forced their victims to use drugs were diminished substantially. The amendment almost suspended the sentence of the most emblematic trafficker in Bulgaria in diminishing it from 12 to 4 years.

On 16 March 2005, the National Assembly adopted the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence. The Law is envisaged to regulate procedures for protection against domestic violence. The State is obliged to create conditions for the implementation of programs for preventing domestic violence and programs providing assistance to victims of domestic violence and perpetrators. One year after the adoption of the law, on the 19 October 2006, the Government adopted a Programme for Prevention and Protection from Domestic Violence. However no special budget is allocated for its implementation. The financing of the envisaged measures should be insured by the budget of the responsible ministry.

Unfortunately, there is still no centralized information system or information data base on the numbers of initiated and finished legal proceedings in court under the law, which do not allow assessing the effectiveness of the law.  

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