A TIME TO PROTEST: THE RIGHT TO FREE ASSEMBLY IN BULGARIA - monitoring report, Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law, 2017 - 2018

The right to free assembly is an indispensable element of democracy and a healthy civil society. Recent years have seen a new era of mass protests, but also a significant increase in practical restrictions on the right in Western Balkan and Eastern countries. As a part of the network of local partners of European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) including Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia and Ukraine, fro the period 2017 - 2018, we from the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL) monitored the Bulgarian legislation regulating the fundamental right to free assembly and the practice of exercising it by the citizens.

In the course of the survey we analyzed the current regulation of the right to free assembly at constitutional, legal and subordinate level, observed some of the most emblematic protests for 2018, conducted interviews with representatives of municipal administrations, police, organizers of protests and gave recommendations for improving the normative basis and practice on the right to free assembly.

Pleasant reading!

The report has been developed within the framework of the “Support to Civil Society Organizations
Continued and Expanded” Project implemented by the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law and financed by America for Bulgaria Foundation.