Bulgaria
This summary provides an overview of two phases in the development of Bulgaria’s intermediary scheme. Firstly, it describes the networking, initial exploration and scoping around what an intermediary scheme might look like in this unique context. Then, it helpfully provides information about the piloting phase of the intermediary scheme and communication facilitator role.
Historically, like many places, Bulgaria has had a medical model approach to disability and there has been a perception that people with disabilities do not have enough capacity to be credible witnesses or to have views about the important decisions in their lives. Alongside this there has been a lack of awareness of accommodations that could be made to enable people with disabilities to participate more effectively in legal settings.
Around 2018, two progressive judges began to engage speech therapists to assist with some legal cases relating to the potential placement of people with disabilities in institutions. In these cases, under Bulgarian law, the judge has an obligation to explore the person’s views on where they want to live so the judge approached some speech and language therapists to ask them to assist with the supported decision-making process.
Subsequently, Maria Krasteva was involved in a multi-national project for victims with disabilities (Information and Communication: Cornerstones of justice for victims of crime with disability – 878604 — InfoComPWDs co-funded by the EU) which culminated in writing a report on the rights of victims with disabilities and the barriers they face in legal settings. Throughout the project, Maria had repeatedly encountered the term intermediary in the context of enabling people to participate in legal settings. She had also met several police and justice professionals who were willing to engage with people with disabilities but didn’t feel they had the expertise to do it. They wanted someone with expertise in communicating with people with disabilities to facilitate their conversations. And so, one of the strongest recommendations in her report was for Bulgaria to start using an intermediary-type role to assist people with disabilities to participate in their legal matters.
A few months later, Maria became a member of the Fair Access to Justice Knowledge Hub and was then invited to attend the inaugural Fair Access to Justice Institute in Canterbury and became aware of the intermediary workstream and wealth of resources available.
Since then, Maria has been travelling across Bulgaria networking with legal professionals and stakeholders such as police to advocate for the development of intermediary workforce within Bulgaria’s legal system.
At the same time, a Bulgarian NGO which has a workforce of mostly psychologists and social workers has received international funding to do assessments for people with disabilities. These assessments of social functioning can provide judges with a more holistic view of a person’s strengths and needs which may influence the outcome of legal cases and decisions for people with disabilities.
The Intermediary Role
In Bulgaria, intermediaries will be called communication facilitators. No final decisions have been made about the parameters of the communication facilitator role, who will be able to access communication facilitator assistance and what eligibility criteria will be used as yet. However, it is hoped that communication facilitators will be registered within the court system as that may enable legal stakeholders to have trust in the communication facilitator role and its professional standards e.g., impartiality.
It is likely that the initial use of communication facilitators will be to assist adult defendants in criminal jurisdictions. It is hoped that communication facilitators will eventually be able to assist both adult and child witnesses, complainants, defendants and respondents across a range of jurisdictions. There is also some optimism that communication facilitators will be able to assist in police interviews in future.
In the civil law cases related to placement mentioned above, it’s possible there may not be any need to demonstrate eligibility for the involvement of communication facilitators as the Applicants involved are already known to have disabilities. However, if further proof is required the person’s medical certificate may suffice. (In Bulgaria, people with disabilities undergo a medical assessment process which looks at their employability and decides their disability benefit/pension. At the end of this process, they get a medical certificate which could possibly be used to prove eligibility for assistance from a communication facilitator in legal settings.)
In general, it is hoped that legal stakeholders across Bulgaria will know the communication facilitator role exists and how to access communication facilitators for those who need them. However, the legislation is not straightforward and so those processes still need to be worked out. Once the processes have been decided, there will be a series of informational sessions across the country to ensure everyone knows who can be referred, on what legal grounds and how to make the referral.
The Law
In Bulgaria, apart from sign language interpreters, procedural laws do not include any straightforward requirements to ensure support for persons with communication needs. There is however one provision in the Persons with Disability Act which sets up a general obligation to all courts and other state bodies to provide effective access to justice to persons with disabilities on equal basis with others, including through ‘procedural measures of support’.
This piece of relatively new legislation together with some general procedural provisions around interpretation and discrimination, as well as Art. 13 of the CRPD (ratified by Bulgaria in 2012), might well be used to enable intermediaries to be appointed in court and police matters.
Other support available within legal settings
Within the civil law jurisdiction, judges can direct involvement of interpreters and sign language interpreters.
Criminal court jurisdictions only have access to sign language interpreters.
There is no provision for specialists to provide emotional support within court. Relatives are allowed to attend hearings but are not allowed to speak to the Applicant, or the judge or to interrupt proceedings.
Training
A group of six speech and language therapists have been recruited in April 2023 to train as intermediaries/communication facilitators. Training is now already half way through and involves a combination of in person and online sessions. For the initial training, Paula Backen, an intermediary from England, travelled to Bulgaria to assist with the training. A lawyer from Bulgaria has also been involved to teach how legal systems work in Bulgaria and to explain the meaning of complex legal terms and dictionary. The first session started with visiting a Bulgarian criminal court and attending a real-time criminal law hearing.
However, there is currently no state funding to establish the intermediary role and workforce.
Under the current system, it is quite difficult for judges to justify the cost of intermediary/communication facilitator assistance. This is not helped by the cost of travel expenses incurred when there are only two speech therapists who have done this sort of work for the court, and they need to cover the whole country. Having a larger cohort of people trained for this sort of work should significantly reduce the travel expenses for individual pieces of work.
It is hoped that by the time the first cohort of trained registered intermediaries/communication facilitators is in place, and the intermediary/communication facilitator model has been piloted, funding will not be a barrier for people who need access to intermediary support.
Pressing issues and future perspectives
Building legal stakeholders trust in the intermediary/communication facilitators role – As the intermediary/communication facilitators role is new, legal stakeholders may worry that intermediaries/communication facilitators will bias or misinterpret information or invalidate the process in some way. It will be essential to address the issue of trust from the beginning through robust training and professional standards for intermediaries/communication facilitators and by piloting the intermediary/communication facilitator scheme to prove their contribution to fair judicial processes. It will also be important to clarify the different purposes of roles such as advocates, professionals involved in shared or supported decision-making and intermediaries/communication facilitators.
Limited funding – The courts and judges are overwhelmed with work and courts’ budgets are already stretched. Legal cases involving people with disabilities are often more time-consuming for judges and police and therefore expensive.
Job security for the intermediary workforce – There is currently significant interest in the development of the intermediary/communication facilitators role in Bulgaria. However, there is not much certainty around employment for this first cohort of trainees e.g., how often they might be directed to assist, pay rates and so on. It is unlikely intermediary work will provide full-time employment in the early stages and it is likely that intermediary/communication facilitator payrates will be lower than the payrates the intermediaries/communication facilitators would get as speech therapists.
Potential workforce – In Bulgaria, speech and language therapists tend to work with children not adults. It is hoped that university training programmes for speech therapy will start to include topics related to intermediary/communication facilitator work in their curriculum.
Resources relating to piloting the intermediary scheme in Bulgaria
Watch a recording of the piloting event here:
The communication facilitator role as envisaged in Bulgaria (in English):
The role of the communication facilitator in Bulgaria
A description of the process followed to develop the communication facilitator role (in English).
An example of a process for developing an intermediary scheme This may be useful for countries planning to develop and intermediary scheme.
Useful documentation and references
‘Voices for justice: Victims of crime with disabilities in Bulgaria’ – a 2022 report developed within the project “Information and Communication: Cornerstones of justice for victims of crime with disability (878604 — InfoComPWDs)” co-funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme (2014-2020), available in English language at: https://nie.expert/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/National-finding-report-Bulgaria_en-220426-1.pdf
‘Briefing paper on barriers faced by defendants with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities in the criminal justice system in Bulgaria’ developed in 2023 within the project “Enabling inclusion and access to justice for defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities” (ENABLE – 101056701 – JUST-2021-JACC), available in English language at: https://nie.expert/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FINAL_KERA_2023_06_02_National-briefing-paper_Bulgaria_ENG.pdf