Bulgaria Woman

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with youth in Bulgaria, Brazil and Korea. We discussed serious issues like the war in Iraq and the future of the European Union. We also discussed less serious matters. For example, in Korea, a young woman wanted to know what calypso was all about and would I please help her understand this music. (Laughter.) ... [Read More]

IV. Country Narratives: Europe and Eurasia

The Government of Cyprus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Cyprus is included in this year’s report due to evidence of significant trafficking from source countries, advocates in Cyprus and the Ombudswoman’s 2003 trafficking report. Cyprus is on Tier 2 Watch List because its efforts against trafficking are based largely on the government’s commitments to implement the Ombudswoman’s recommendations in the near future. The government’s efforts were underway at the close of the reporting period. The government should focus specifically on understanding the nature of the problem better and developing a partnership with NGOs to improve victim identification and support. ... [Read More]

Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at an Awards Ceremony Honoring CultureConnect Ambassadors and Basketball Envoys – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with youth in Bulgaria, Brazil and Korea. We discussed serious issues like the war in Iraq and the future of the European Union. We also discussed less serious matters. For example, in Korea, a young woman wanted to know what calypso was all about and would I please help her understand this music. (Laughter.) ... [Read More]

IIIa. Country Narratives - Countries A through G

Afghanistan (Tier 3)Afghanistan is a country of origin and transit for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and labor. Internal trafficking of women and children for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor also occurs. Afghanistan was under two different governments during this period: the Taliban and the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA). Until December 22, 2001, when the AIA took over there was no functioning central government. During most of 2001, the Taliban, a Pashtun-dominated fundamentalist Islamic movement, controlled approximately ninety percent of the country. Taliban forces were responsible for disappearances of women and children, many of whom were trafficked to Pakistan and the Gulf States. Under the Taliban, women and girls were subjected to rape, kidnapping, and forced marriage. Since the AIA took over, there ar ... [Read More]

U.S. Commitment to Women in Europe and Eurasia

Public-Private Partnerships. Fifty women business owners from small- and medium-sized enterprises from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus joined 50 U.S. women business leaders at the Riga Women Business Leaders Summit in Riga, Latvia September 2004. The Summit’s aim was to help build economic relationships between the Baltic States, their neighbors, and the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Riga and the Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga hosted the Summit, a successor to the 2002 Helsinki Women Business Leaders Summit that former U.S. Ambassador to Finland Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and U.S. businesswoman founded ( http://www.usembassy.fi/servlet/PageServer?Page=hwbls/hwbls.html). For the second portion of the Riga Summit, the women traveled to the United States in December 2004 to attend a conference at Georgetown University to continue their partnerships, excha ... [Read More]

2004 Country Report on Human Rights in Bulgaria

As individuals and as an ethnic group, Roma continued to face high levels of discrimination. During the summer, in the first of a series of discrimination cases under the 2003 Protection Against Discrimination Act, the Sofia City Court found in favor of a Romani woman who had been refused service in a clothing shop due to racial discrimination. Romani Baht reported that five of the six cases it filed during the year under the Act were successful. ...

The law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, religion, disability, age, and sexual orientation and provides for the establishment of a nine-member antidiscrimination commission with powers to receive and investigate complaints, issue rulings, and impose sanctions. However, the National Assembly had not appointed the commission members by year's end. A number of cases were lodged for breaches of the Protection Against Discrimination Act, and in July, a Romani woman was awarded damages on the grounds of racial discrimination for being refused service in a shop. ... [Read More]

Bulgaria

Violence against women is a serious and common problem, but there are no official statistics on its occurrence. The Animus Association Foundation (AAF), an NGO that offers assistance and support to female victims of violence, has estimated that one in five women suffers from spousal abuse. Spousal rape is a crime, but it rarely is prosecuted. According to a survey by a local polling agency, 80 percent of rapes involve a known assailant. The law exempts from state prosecution certain types of assault if committed by a family member, and the Government generally does not assist in prosecuting crimes of domestic assault unless the woman has been killed or injured permanently. Courts and prosecutors tend to view domestic abuse as a family matter rather than a criminal problem, and in most cases, victims of domestic violence take refuge with family or friends rather than approach the authorities. Police often are reluctant to intervene in cases of domestic abuse, even if a woman calls them ... [Read More]

Bulgaria

Domestic violence against women was a serious problem. Although there were no official statistics on its occurrence, it was estimated by the NGO Animus Association Foundation (AAF) that one in five women suffered from spousal abuse. The law exempts from state prosecution certain types of assault if committed by a family member, and the Government generally did not assist in prosecuting domestic assault cases unless the woman was killed or injured permanently. Courts and prosecutors tended to view domestic abuse as a family matter rather than a criminal problem; as a result, police often were reluctant to intervene in cases of domestic abuse, even if a woman called them seeking protection or assistance. ... [Read More]

Bulgaria

Societal violence against women was a serious and common problem, but there were no official statistics on its occurrence. The Animus Association Foundation (AAF), an NGO that offered assistance and support to female victims of violence, estimated that one in five women suffered from spousal abuse. The law exempts from state prosecution certain types of assault if committed by a family member, and the Government generally did not assist in prosecuting domestic assault cases unless the woman was killed or injured permanently. Courts and prosecutors tended to view domestic abuse as a family matter rather than a criminal problem. In most cases, victims of domestic violence took refuge with family or friends rather than approach the authorities. Police often were reluctant to intervene in cases of domestic abuse, even if a woman called them seeking protection or assistance. ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G

Equatorial Guinea is a transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, involuntary domestic servitude, and other forced labor. Women and children are trafficked to Equatorial Guinea from West and Central Africa, principally Cameroon, Nigeria, and Benin. Women are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in Malabo, where demand is high due to the booming oil sector. Cameroonian and Beninese children are trafficked to Malabo for exploitation as street and market hawkers; Nigerian boys are trafficked to Rio Muni (the mainland) for exploitation as agricultural workers. The Government of Equatorial Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Over the past year the government has made a number of efforts that attest ... [Read More]