MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

Decisions

CM/Del/Dec(2024)1514/H46-42

5 December 2024

1514th meeting, 3-5 December 2024 (DH)   H46-42 Paketova and Others v. Bulgaria (Application No. 17808/19) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments   Reference documents CM/Notes/1514/H46-42

 

Decisions

The Deputies

1.         recalled that this case concerns the omissions of the different relevant authorities, which resulted in a situation where the applicants were driven away from their homes after anti-Roma[1] protests in January and February 2019 and were unable to return, without any legal consequences to these events and without the applicants being offered adequate support (violation of Article 8 in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention);

As regards individual measures

2.         invited the authorities to provide detailed information on the applicants’ current housing situation, on any support they may require in relation to overcoming the consequences of the events in 2019 and on steps taken to offer such support;

3.         recalling the European Court’s criticism of the failure of prosecutors to ascertain the circumstances that have led to the applicants fleeing their homes, invited the authorities to provide information on re-examination by the competent prosecutors of the contemporaneous evidence set out in the judgment and on the possibility for carrying out further inquiries or investigation;

4.         recalling also the European Court’s criticism of the strongly stigmatising language targeting the Roma community in Bulgaria used by several officials, encouraged the authorities to consider the possibility of conveying a public message of apology or acknowledgement to the applicants and of commitment to approach such situations in a Convention-compliant manner, which could also constitute a relevant general measure;

As regards the general measures

5.         noted that the judgment had been disseminated to the authorities involved in the events; invited the authorities to provide further information on measures adopted or envisaged to ensure that in the event of public disorder, protests, and manifestations motivated by anti-Roma sentiments or in the event of ethnic based violence in general, there are adequate procedures to be followed by all local and central authorities (including police, prosecutors and social services), aimed at ensuring effective protection for the home and the private and family life of the individuals concerned; encouraged them to consider whether specific training for public officials needs to be provided in this regard;

6.         stressed that preventing similar violations requires that ethnically or racially motivated threats, violence or hate speech do not remain without legal consequences and that the authors of such acts are held accountable; invited the authorities to provide information on the prosecutorial and judicial practices concerning criminal law provisions punishing racially or ethnically motivated crimes, including on the number of anti-Roma rallies or hate speech investigated or prosecuted and on the outcome such proceedings; invited them moreover to provide information on trainings for magistrates and law-enforcement agents in this area and encouraged them in this context to draw on the resources available in the Council of Europe; 

7.         invited the authorities to provide information on all the above aspects, as well as on the questions identified in the analysis of the Secretariat, by the end of August 2025 and decided to resume consideration of this case at one of their DH meetings in 2026.