Bulgarian legal aid and Roma women

Abstract

The report has the need for and use of legal aid by Bulgarian Roma women as its main subject. It analyses the Bulgarian legal aid schemes that cover Roma women, and map their strengths and weaknesses with suggestions for improvements. The analysis includes both general legal aid schemes and special schemes like test schemes in Roma settlements. We only analyse a selection of legal aid challenges that we think important for Bulgaria to solve. The report aims at an objective overview of the system for delivering legal aid to vulnerable groups in Bulgaria. Such a perspective might easier identify reform issues and be helpful to national experts in their analyses. As Norwegian experts, we should independently establish a reasonably accurate picture of how Bulgarian legal aid to vulnerable people as Roma women works at present. According to the guidelines, the report should evaluate Bulgarian legal aid schemes from European and international standards. Our main purpose, however, is to produce recommendations about how Bulgaria might develop legal aid in ways that serve Roma’s legal need well, and especially the legal need of Roma women. In our analyses we summarize the legal and social circumstances that justify the need for reforms followed by our recommendations at the end of the discussions.

Bulgarian legal aid and Roma women