Contributed, in part, by: Liliya Sazonova, Bulgaria National VAW Monitor

A National Council on Social and Demographic Issues was created in 1996 at the Council of Ministers by special decree. The Council was to be responsible for women's issues. However, in 1997, with the changes in the Bulgarian government, the Council was transformed into a Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues and women's issues were eliminated from its mandate. Gender issues were essentially abandoned until negotiations began with the European Union in 2000.

In early 2002, the Bulgarian government considered a draft Act on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, which would have ensured Bulgaria's compliance with EU Directives concerning gender equality. Ultimately, the act was rejected in April 2002 because the government sought to address sex discrimination in a comprehensive anti-discrimination law. On 20 of July 2006 the Council of Ministers adopted on its session a Decision for approval of the Draft Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, submitted by the Minister of Labor and Social Policy. The purpose of the law is to regulate public relationships, related with measures of ensuring equal opportunities for women and men and to determine mechanisms and organs which to implement the state policy for equal opportunities. According to the draft Law the state policy for equal opportunities for women and men shall be determined by the Council of Ministers. It shall adopt the National Strategy for Equal Opportunities based on a proposal by the Minister of Labor and Social Policy who shall develop, coordinate, implement and monitor the state policy of equal opportunities for women and men.

On 16 September 2003, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a new, comprehensive anti-discrimination law, which entered into force on January 2004. The anti-discrimination law (unofficial translation) prohibits discrimination based on several grounds, including gender, in the fields of "labor, education, access to social services, etc..." Sexual harassment is a prohibited form of discrimination under the law. Importantly, the law places the burden of proof on the respondent in prima facie cases of discrimination. The new law also establishes a nine-person Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination to receive and investigate complaints, issue binding decisions and impose sanctions on the perpetrator. 

On 15 August 2002, the Bulgarian government passed a bill on Combating Human Trafficking upon its first reading, which was adopted in May 2003. In January 2004, the Law on Countering Trafficking in Human Beings came into force. The law provides for the formation of a National Anti-Human Trafficking Committee, which would collect information, analyze cases of human trafficking, and prepare strategies for combating trafficking. The committee would consist of representatives of various ministries, state agencies, judicial bodies, NGOs and international organizations. The bill also calls for the formation of local committees with similar purposes and a witness-protection program. On 26 January 2005, the national program for fighting human trafficking was accepted at the session of the National Commission for Fighting Human Trafficking and is set to start in February.

On 16 March 2005, the National Assembly adopted the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence (BGRF's unofficial translation sponsored by the Bulgarian Fund for Women) which came in force on 29 March 2005 when it was promulgated in Durzhaven Vestnik (State Gazette) No. 27. The law defines domestic violence as: "each act of physical, psychological or sexual violence, including the coercion into sexual relations, the forcible limitation of personal freedom and personal life committed against persons who have been in a family or kinship relationship, intimate relations or inhabiting the same housing facility on the grounds above or for other reasons" (Article 2(1)). In addition, the law addresses the issuance and execution of protection orders.