Today's DRH - Bulgaria Rewrites its Disability Law
Sometimes disability history isn’t exciting, even though it’s significant
Image Description: Map of the Balkan countries. Image of Bulgaria is sharpened, while the sourrounding countries and water are slightly blurred.
Sometimes disability history isn’t exciting, even though it’s significant. It’s often got a lot to do with changes in laws or policies that a lot of people worked hard to make a reality. Even though today’s DRH has to do with a political change in Bulgaria, which may not be dinner conversation for those of us reading from North America, it is still important and worth noting.
A Look at Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is located in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula, with Romania to the north, the Black Sea to the east, Turkey and Greece to the south, North Macedonia to the southwest, and Serbia to the west. The population is over 80% Bulgararian who speak the Bulgarian language. Almost 75% of the population lives in one of the 250 urban centres, but Bulgaria boasts 4000 rural communities that have historical roots in the Middle Ages. The modernization of Bulgaria that began after WWII ended has resulted in all rural villages having basic amenities (electricity, water) and paved streets.
Bulgaria was under socialist rule until 1990. It then became a democratic republic headed by a prime minister, and embraced separation of powers, and freedom of speech, press, conscience, and religion. It also began a process of meeting other European Standards in the laws that it passed.
Even in its years under socialism, culture thrived in Bulgaria: festivals, libraries, sports, theatre, and writing are still celebrated. And even before WWII, Bulgaria had a medical system which paid for the medical care of its citizens, to which it returned after the war.
Why Are We Talking About Bulgaria?
It’s perhaps Bulgaria’s progressive spirit that made it willing to ratify the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilites in 2012 and, on December 18, 2018, pass its disability legislation based on the CRPD. This replaced its existing disability law, written in 1995.
I’m prepared to give kudos for that. After all, America still hasn’t ratified the CRPD. Bulgaria was doing well to:
Have disability legislation in 1995, only five years after leaving Communism
Ratify UN disability legislation less than two decades later
Replace its 1995 laws based on that UN legistation in just six years
It’s all reason to give Bulgaria a big hand, but reports from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee indicate that there’s still a ways to go. The Social Services Act and the Personal Assistance Act established by the new laws provide a variety of flexible, legally regulated, individualized supports and advocacy for disabled people, their caregivers, and families. But as of 2022 in Bulgaria, no official data was being gathered in disabled peopled in the country. Approximate numbers from various sources gave them a picture of what had been happening before the new laws came in, and what was still happening for some people:
Institutionalization with a waiting list (that had included children for a while)
Guardianships that took away disabled peoples’ rights to vote, marry, and make other life decisions
Serious discrimination due to lack of accessibility in most life spheres
Let’s hope that things are looking more positive going into 2025!
I used these sources to write this post: