On the 17th of October in the National Parliament's premises was held the round table "Trafficking in Human Beings: Time for Action", organized by the Center Nadia Foundation under the patronage of Mrs. Nadejda Mihailova Deputy Chairwoman of the 40 th National Assembly.

The event was dedicated to the 18th of October, the "EU Anti-Trafficking Day". The patronage of Mrs. Mihailova is a result of her campaign for raising the public society awareness to the topic and consciousness that there is a need for discussions about concrete legal measures for preventing the trafficking in human beings which is a problem of the statecraft.

The round table was attended by the ambassadors of Italy, Greece and Netherlands in Republic of Bulgaria and officers from the USA and Czech Republic embassies, the representative of the UNICEF in Bulgaria - Mr. Octavian Bivol, members of the national and the European Parliament, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, representatives of the National Anti- Trafficking Commission and the Chief Directorate Border Police of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as representatives of the NGOs, working on the problematic.

The roundtable discussions outlined some important problems:

The discussion about the results of the legalization of prostitution and its influence on the problem of trafficking in human beings and the most appropriate for the Bulgarian society ways for such legal intervention stays still open. In respect of this problem very important is the promulgation of international legal conventions which Republic of Bulgaria has ratified. Without their promulgation the legal procedure for entering of the conventions in force according to the Bulgarian Constitution remains not finished. This is a problem raised even before. In march 2007 on the ninetieth National annual meeting of NGOs working on women's' problems and gender equality, organized by the Center of Women Studies and Policies the list of the above mentioned conventions was send to the Chairperson of the National Assembly and separate ministries, but unfortunately there was no any result. Mrs. Mihailova took the engagement to investigate this matter.

Although national legislation on anti trafficking was adopted and the Criminal Code was revised, the Criminal Procedural Code allows continuance of the criminal cases and on practice it works in favor of traffickers, not in favor of victims. On the other hand the Procedural Code does not allow the use of evidences acquired in another member states, informed Mrs. Mila Guergieva from the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Cassation. European model for unified order for acquirement of evidences will be adopted next week which will be a positive step forward in EU level.

Regarding the engagements of Republic of Bulgaria for criminalization of conscious use of services provided by victims of traffic under art. 19 of the Convention of the Council of Europe on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (ratified by a law, adopted on 7-th of March 2007, promulgated in SG, issue 24 of 2007, edited by the Ministry of Justice and promulgated in SG issue 63/03.08. 2007, in force for Bulgaria from 18.06.2007) in the National Assembly was submitted draft for amendment of the Criminal Code, informed Mrs. Mihailova.