PHA-Exch> Collective Complaint against Bulgaria Claims Violation of the State's Obligation to Protect Health

[Claudio Schuftan]

The European Roma Rights Centre today brought a collective complaint under
the Revised European Social Charter (RESC) against Bulgaria for persistent
and systematic violations of the right to protection of health and to social
and medical assistance with respect to Bulgarian Roma as guaranteed under
Articles 11 and 13 of the Charter and related international standards.

The ERRC collective complaint alleges that these commitments are not upheld
with respect to Roma in Bulgaria, because the Bulgarian government has
failed to eliminate the disparate impact of health insurance legislation on
Roma and other vulnerable groups in society and tolerates policies and
practices which undermine the protection of health of members of the Romani
communities in Bulgaria.
The present collective complaint reveals high levels of exclusion of Roma
from health care, gross disparities in health between Roma and non-Roma, and
higher vulnerability of Roma to tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
These conditions prevail in many Romani communities throughout Europe.
The full text of the Collective Complaint is available at:
http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2144 .

For further information on the ERRC collective complaint, please contact
ERRC Research and Policy Coordinator Savelina Danova/Russinova:
savelina.danova at errc.org.
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