The Animus Association Foundation has finalised a communication and advocacy project on the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). It has run from December to June 2023. The project is one of two projects selected in Bulgaria under the call for proposals and funded by the Council of Europe programme “Ending violence against women: multi-country programme”.
The project aimed at raising awareness of the Bulgarian society on the nature of domestic and gender-based violence, the values, aims and provisions of the Istanbul Convention and the need to adapt Bulgarian legislation. The campaign was based on the methodology developed by the the Council of Europe Gender Equality Division, Women Against Violence Europe Network (WAVE) and UN Women.
A national awareness-raising campaign reached over 39 000 people:
- 20 informational posts, 23 media interviews showed the real scope of the problem of domestic violence and encouraged for actions.
- 10 videos of public figures directly involved in combatting domestic Violence reached about 7 000 users.
- The relevant Council of Europe awareness raising materials were translated, adapted to the Bulgarian context and disseminated.
An analytical report outlining the gaps in the Bulgarian legislation and in social services dealing with domestic violence and suggesting measures to be adopted was also prepared. Meetings with stakeholders in 12 districts in the country served to gain a real picture of the work of institutions.
“The result of the awareness campaign was particularly visible after the latest case of gender-based violence, when an 18-year-old girl was cut four hundred times by an intimate partner. The civil society organised active protests across the country, resulting in the urgent convening of the legal committee in the parliament to adopt supplementary measures to the law on protection from domestic violence passed on 21 July 2023” said Nadejda Stoytcheva, director of Animus Association Foundation.
