The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Unhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has issued a public statement on Bulgaria today, BNR correspondent Angelina Piskova reported from Brussels. The statement addresses the persistent lack of implementation of long-standing recommendations of the CPT concerning the situation of persons placed in social care institutions and psychiatric hospitals in Bulgaria.

“The phenomenon of physical ill-treatment of social care residents and patients with psychiatric disorders by staff has been a matter of long-standing concern for the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Unhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Visit after visit, CPT delegations have recorded complains about persons having been slapped, punched and kicked by the staff in social care homes and psychiatric hospitals. Despite raising the issue of deliberate physical ill-treatment on numerous occasions, the Bulgarian authorities have not taken the necessary measures to eradicate this totally unacceptable practice”, the Committee points out in its statement. For more than 25 years, CTT delegations have repeatedly noticed cases of physical violence, lack of a decent environment, staff shortage. etc.