Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategy in Bulgaria.

Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategy in Bulgaria. Identifying blind spots in Roma inclusion policy was approved by European Commission in June. The report covers three topics that are only partly included in the present NRIS, no specific actions have been undertaken or no results have been achieved. One topic relates to the absent of supportive public environment and the rise of antigypsyism which are among the main obstacles before the implementation of any Roma integration policy. In the first chapter, social prejudices and the hate speech towards Roma in Bulgaria are analysed in their development between 2008 and 2018, providing the overall context and its deterioration in the last six years. This is illustrated by a case study on Roma in the political and public discourse in the example of one town of Gabrovo. The study analyses the events occurred in 2019 and negative interlink between racist hate speech and the commitment of hate crimes. In particular, the case demonstrates the influence of instances of hate speech expressed by politicians contribute to create ethnic tensions and appearance of ethnic conflicts even in places with where the Roma population is not of significance, such as in the city of Gabrovo). The third chapter is about gender equality and violence against Roma women. The report provides arguments for incorporating the problems of Roma women, goals and activities for overcoming them in the new NRIS. The fourth chapter is about the increase of segregation in education due to the deepening of the social distances and the increase of antigypsyism.

The report has been prepared by NGOs Amalipe Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance, World Without Borders Association and Gender Alternatives Foundation by the authors as follows:

• chapter “Social prejudices and hate speech towards Roma”: Alexey Pamporov and Gancho Iliev (World Without Borders Association);
• chapter “From hate speech to hate crimes: example of Gabrovo”: Deyan Kolev and Ivan Todorov (Amalipe Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance);
• chapter “Gender equality and violence against women”: Rada Elenkova (Gender Alternatives Foundation);
• chapter “Secondary segregation in education”: Deyan Kolev and Teodora Krumova (Amalipe Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance).

The overall report development was coordinated by the NGO Amalipe Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance.

The report was prepared as part of the Roma Civil Monitor pilot project, ‘Capacity-building for Roma civil society and strengthening its involvement in the monitoring of National Roma Integration Strategies’. The pilot project is carried out for the European Commission, DG Justice and Consumers. It is coordinated by the Center for Policy Studies of the Central European University (CEU CPS), in partnership with the European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network (ERGO Network), the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) and the Roma Education Fund (REF) and implemented with around 90 NGOs and experts from up to 27 member states.

The report will be presented before national level and local institutions  regional forums and a national conference.

The report and summary are available at Publications section of Centre Amalipe webpage