A consortium led by the Chamber of Investigators in Bulgaria, in partnership with the Research & Training Point Foundation and the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo are starting a new project, PROTECT. On 26.10.2022, the Ministry of Justice signed the grant agreement for the project PROTECT (BGJUSTICE -4.002-0011: Inform-Investigate-Protect: Fighting violence Against Women). The project is supported within the framework of the Justice Program of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism/EEA Grants.
The initiative aims at increasing the capacity of the Bulgarian authorities in the field of combating domestic violence and violence against women. PROTECT offers three main activities to achieve its main goal:
First: Analysis of risks and risk profiles in an ethno-social context as a basis for developing knowledge-based public policies.
Second: Specialized training for justice system professionals working in the field of combating domestic violence and violence against women.
Third: A public campaign for awareness-raising and improving the collaboration between the judiciary and Roma communities, setting common goals and priorities in the fight against domestic violence.
The expected project results include:
-128 experts increase their knowledge and skills through informal training to tackle gender-based violence and violence against women
-40 people, incl. young people (students, etc.) will be engaged in the project information campaign.
The budget of the project is BGN 361,233 and its duration is 18 months.