Prostitution and Sexual Explotation in Bulgaria

This new publication in the RiskMonitor series includes five independent studies on prostitution and sexual exploitation. One of the papers discusses organized prostitution and its clients, focusing on how the market is run and functions in Sofia. The second paper studies the sexual exploitation of children. Three papers are dedicated to legal analyses of current legislation regarding prostitution and sexual exploitation, a comparative legal study of prostitution regulation in EU countries, and a study of sexual exploitation and prostitution from the perspective of international human rights legislation.

The papers deliver both statistical information from relevant studies and highlight loopholes in the existing legislation, and make specific recommendations for improvement. The authors see as one of the main weaknesses of the current legislation its inadequacy and obsolete provisions; accordingly, one of the proposals for reform is the adoption of a new legal framework. Another issue, discussed in the papers, concerns the ineffective methods and mechanisms for dealing with organized prostitution and sexual exploitation. The third main question raised in the publications concerns corruption, used by organized crime to run the prostitution markets; the authors of the study stress the need to active measures to stop corruption at all levels in society.

Georgi Petrunov, Antoaneta Vassileva, Vassil Mikov, Iva Pushkarova, Yonko Grozev, Natasha Dobreva
2009-2010

This publication was made possible with the financial support of the EAA financial mechanism under the project ПО3-21-00 "Sexual Exploitation in Bulgaria: Myths and Reality".

Links to the publications (in Bulgarian):

Organized prostitution in Bulgaria

Тrafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children

Bulgarian Legislation on Prostitution: Problems and Perspectives

Prostitution and the Rule of Law: Between Aggressive Prohibition and Indifferent Assent

Sexual Exploitation and Prostitution from the Perspective of International Human Rights Regulation

Full text of the publications (in Bulgarian) is available here.