News

19 October 2023

Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva sent an opinion to Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in which she expressed her disagreement with the draft Regulations on the structure, organisation and activities of the National Council for Prevention and Protection against Domestic Violence, which had been published on the public consultation website. The by-law provides for the establishment of a department “Protection of vulnerable groups and interaction with civil society”, which will perform the functions of a Secretariat of the National Council for Prevention and Protection against Domestic Violence.

In her opinion, Prof. Kovacheva insists on the establishment of an independent unit, which will be involved in administrative-technical, organisational, expert, financial services and support of the implementation of the functions of the National Council for Prevention and Protection against Domestic Violence.

She is adamant that the proposals in the Council of Ministers’ Decree do not meet the legal purpose of an independent state policy in the field of domestic violence and emphasizes that it is inappropriate to mix areas that have their own specifics and are different from the topic of domestic violence.  

“I do not think it is appropriate, when the State is expected to invest the necessary resources to combat domestic violence and to have an independent policy in this area, to set up a secretariat that will have other functions in areas unrelated to domestic violence. It is striking that even in the name of the department, there is no mention of domestic violence. Moreover, the secretary of the National Council will be the head of the “Vulnerable groups protection and interaction with civil society” department, who will also be the secretary of two other councils in an area quite different in nature from domestic violence. Effective work in the field of domestic violence requires expert and specific knowledge in the field of prevention and protection against domestic violence, which implies that professionals with high expertise in this field should work in this unit,” writes the public defender.

Prof. Kovacheva also points out that as Ombudsman she had repeatedly called for decisive measures to be taken to combat domestic violence, including at the legislative level. She notes that when discussing the draft laws, she has explicitly pointed out as a significant gap the absence of a national body in the country responsible for formulating, implementing and evaluating the policies and coordinating the actions of the authorities for preventing and combating domestic violence.

“During the discussions on the amendments to the Protection from Domestic Violence Act, I supported the legislative proposals for its creation, as it is indisputable that prevention and protection of victims of domestic violence, coordination of authorities, formulation and evaluation of policies in this area must be a targeted state policy”, adds the Ombudsman.

Therefore, she does not support the proposed draft, as it does not meet the goals set, namely: the setting up of the National Council for Prevention and Protection against Domestic Violence as a specialised standing collective and advisory body for the implementation of the state policy on prevention and protection against domestic violence through coordination, monitoring and evaluation of policies and measures aimed at prevention and protection against domestic violence.