User:YuliaShenderovich/Bulgarian Helsinki committee

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) is a Bulgarian non-governmental organisation working on protection of human rights. BHC monitors the situation with human rights in Bulgaria, offers free legal help, organizes educational events and maintains several programs and publications. BHC was established on 14 July 1992 as an independent organization and in 1993 joined the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which used to represent 46 independent human rights organisations in Europe, the former Soviet Union and North America until its bankruptcy in 2007.

Objectives
BHC aims to: BHC pays special attention to the most vulnerable population groups: minorities, migrants, imprisoned, children and women.
 * promote respect and carry out advocacy for the protection of human rights of every individual
 * stimulate legislative reform to bring Bulgarian legislation in line with international human rights standards
 * trigger public debate on human rights issues
 * popularise and make widely available human rights instruments.

Activities
Monitoring of the human rights situation in Bulgaria is the major task of BHC. Monitoring supplies information and provides cases of human rights violations for litigations before domestic and international courts. BHC offers free legal help - legal counselling and/or procedural representation before the domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights - to the victims of human rights abuses. The Committee also works in the sphere of human rights education as organizer of conferences, workshops and trainings as well as other public activities serving to bring human rights to general attention.

BHC operates through a number of programmes:

Institutional Support and Media Advocacy Programme The programme has operated since 1993 with the support of Open Society Institute - Budapest. Within its framework, among other things, BHC has been publishing monthly magazine Obektiv, which received the prize for print media devoted to interethnic tolerance at the International Media Festival in Albena in 2004.

Legal Defence Programme  Strategic litigations aim to bring Bulgarian legislation in line with international standards and stimulate a better understanding of human rights standards among practising lawyers.

Closed Institutions Programme The committee deals with all places of compulsory detention to establish compliance of the conditions there with the human rights standards.

Refugees' and Migrants' Legal Protection Programme The programme offers legal consultations, representation and attorney defense to about 5,000 people every year, takes part in development of the Bulgarian refugee and migration policy, assists the integration of refugees in Bulgaria or their dignified return to countries of origin.

Programme for Protection of the Rights of Institutionalised Children The engagement with the children in institutions is focused on children's right to life, access to quality medical care, access to quality education, possibilities for socialization and realisation of their personalities. BHC counsels staff in children’s institutions, participates in discussions with state bodies and pushes for for deinstitutionalization and provision of quality care.

'''[http://ravni.bghelsinki.org/ Initiative Equal Opportunities for Women. Now!]'''(only in Bulgarian)

BHC publishes:
 * quarterly human rights magazine Obektiv
 * annual reports on the human rights situation in Bulgaria
 * special reports on the issues of inclusice education of children, access to justice, children with special needs, protection of ethnic minorities, juvenile justice, freedom of expression and others.
 * books on human rights in Bulgaria
 * statments on the cases from the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, in which human rights are involved
 * human rights-related manuals
 * online news and bulletin

Funding
The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee is financed through grants.