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Description
The Covid -19 crisis is a “convenient” excuse not to abide by the human rights standards under the pretext that the restrictions in the exercising of some of the rights are “necessary” to deal with the pandemic. The dynamic situation and the introduction/revocation of the restrictive measures bring additional confusion to citizens, many of whom are not sufficiently aware of their rights as a whole. The project aims at providing legal aid in the form of consultations to people who believe their rights have been violated as well as opinions on pending cases. Citizens will be provided with free-of-charge professional consultations about the legal and factual actions they can take to safeguard their rights. The project comes as a response to the likelihood of a growing number of violations of human rights “dictated” by the fight against Covid-19. The project is in line with Thematic Priority 2 Increased Support for Human Rights and specific objective 3 Legal Aid and Counselling Services Provided to Victims of Human Rights Violations. The project will contribute to improved protection of human rights by providing counselling services to at least 80 people regarding violations of human rights and four opinions on pending proceedings. The activities are targeted at the general public, at all citizens who believe that their rights have been violated, taking into account that vulnerable groups have been much more affected by the pandemic, due to which we expect increased interest by people with disabilities, the Roma, the unemployed, the elderly and others.
Summary of project results
The main goal of the project "Protection of human rights during a pandemic" was to provide legal assistance in the form of consultations to persons who believe that their rights have been violated, as well as legal opinions on already pending cases.
The project was implemented in response to the potential for increased growth of human rights violations during the Covid - 19 pandemic. This was achieved by providing legal aid and counseling to victims of discrimination and human rights violations in the form of individual counseling, who believe that their rights have been violated, as well as opinions on already pending cases. For the entire project implementation period, the lawyers from the team of the Foundation "Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights" provided a total of 144 hours of legal consultations to 84 end users, to whom it has been explained what legal and factual actions they can take to guarantee their rights.
During the implementation of the project, 4 expert opinions were prepared on already pending proceedings of citizens who needed and wanted an additional expert opinion. For the elaboration of them, our experts organized meetings, familiarized themselves with the case study in each individual case and subsequently prepared opinions.