Deputy Minister Velislava Petrova chairs the Ninth Session of the National Coordination Mechanism for Human Rights
21 February 2022 News
On February 21th, 2022, the Ninth Meeting of the National Coordination Mechanism on Human Rights (NCMHR) took place, chaired by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Velislava Petrova. The mechanism was established by Decision № 796/13.12.2013 of the Council of Ministers and coordinates on a horizontal level between state bodies and institutions dealing with various aspects of human rights. This was the first meeting of the NCMHR since the beginning of the pandemic. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Labor and Social Policy, Justice, Education, Regional Development and Public Works, Health, Culture and Interior, as well as the Agency for People with Disabilities, the Social Assistance Agency, the State Agency for Child Protection, the State Agency for Refugees, the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Chairman of the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, the Council for Electronic Media, etc. The NCMHR approved an Action Plan for the implementation of the recommendations received within the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council, as well as the VII National Report of the Republic of Bulgaria on the Implementation of the UN Convention against Torture. It was decided to create a mechanism for the implementation of the decisions on individual complaints against Bulgaria before the UN control bodies under the universal human rights treaties. The NCMHR also discussed other current human rights issues.