The Information Resources Program included the following projects and areas of activity in 1995:

•  Information and Documentation Centre of the Council of Europe

•  Democracy and Economic Reform Guide for Bulgaria

•  Fostering Public Awareness in the Year of Tolerance

•  Who is Who in Bulgarian Politics

•  Building Democracy in Mass Media

•  Visit of Bulgarian journalists to NATO

•  Library and Book Publishing.

I. Information and Documentation Centre of the Council of Europe

The Information and Documentation Centre of the Council of Europe &emdash; Sofia (IDCCES) was founded at the end of 1993 with the aim to make the Council's documents available to the Bulgarian public, to promote the "European idea" and the ideals of democracy, cooperation and human rights.

Its national information network is now established and functioning, bringing Council of Europe materials closer to people outside the capital city. In 1995, all eight regional information units were supplied regularly with a selection of Council of Europe materials.

In 1995, the efforts of the Information Centre were concentrated on two Council of Europe campaigns: the Youth Campaign Against Racism, Anti-Semitism, Xenophobia and Intolerance, and the Nature Conservation Year. It assisted the national coordinating committees for the two campaigns and participated in the campaigns with events of its own.

A photo competition "Fear or Tolerance" was organized in the period March-May, and the best photographs were presented at an exhibition held firstly at CSD in Sofia, and then in Plovdiv. Later it will be shown in the other information units of the national network, drawing public attention to the campaign's message.

Led by the belief that one important way of influencing the development of society is to work with children, the Information Centre co-organized a children's drawing competition, "Nature in My World", within the ENCY campaign. The culmination of this initiative was an exhibition at the National Palace of Culture during the conference of European ministers of the environment in October. A second exhibition was held at the Russian Cultural Centre in early November.

In another publicity-oriented initiative, the Information Centre signed a contract with the Committee of Posts and Telecommunications, under which the logo of the campaign with the inscription "Council of Europe, European Nature Conservation Year" was stamped onto all incoming and outgoing letters in Sofia in the period October 20 &emdash; November 20.

Seminars

•  Film Producing and Copyrights, held in April. The guest speaker at the seminar was Mr. Barrie Ellis-Jones, Executive Secretary of Eurimages.  

•  Training seminar on human rights, July 21, in co-operation with the Martin Luther King Project Bulgaria, with the participation of Mr. Krassimir Kanev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

•  Bulgarian Women's NGOs &emdash; in Beijing and Beyond held at the end of November, with the participation of Ms. Karen van Ebbenhorst Tengbergen of the Equality Section of the Council of Europe, Ms. Lin Lap Chew of the International Report Project, The Netherlands, and Ms. Maria Jose Cabezon

Rico of the Association of Young Women, Spain. 

•  Legal Instruments for Protection of Violated Human Rights, held in December, in co-operation with Interrights, London and the Bulgarian Association for Fair Elections. It was attended by Dr. Jeremy McBright of the University of Birmingham, Mr. Istvan Horvat of the Budapest Bar Association and judges from the Bulgarian Constitutional Court.

•  In December 1995, IDCCES co-organized with the Directorate for Religious Affairs at the Council of Ministers and the Directorate for Human Rights at the Council of Europe a seminar Freedom of Religion, Democracy and State Policy in the Light of the Council of Europe Human Rights Standards. It was attended by members of various religious groups, representatives of government agencies on religious and human rights issues, and representatives of NGOs in this area.

Discussions and Public Lectures

•  Bulgarian Statehood in the Period 1878&endash;1946 in the Light of the Turnovo Constitution, on July 12, with the participation of leading Bulgarian historians and constitutional law experts. The Bulgarian National Television is making a film on the basis of the discussion.

• A public lecture Council of Europe and Human Rights was organized on November 6 in cooperation with the Bulgaria-Netherlands Friendship Society. The lecture was delivered by Mr. Dimitar Gochev, Constitutional Court Judge, and Member of the European Court on uman Rights, Strasbourg.

•  In cooperation with Mr. Marcus Brand of the Civic Education Project and Mr. Yonko Grozev of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, a discussion on human rights was held with university students from Sofia and Varna on November 10.

Visits

• Mr. Miguel Angel Martinez, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, visited IDCCES on June 9, and met with leading Bulgarian intellectuals.

Publicity Events

•  A radio competition was organized in cooperation with Vitosha Radio, Sofia. A question related to the Council of Europe was asked each Sunday for eight consecutive weeks, and the winners received the Off to Europe computer game.

•  IDCCES Director Emil E. Georgiev took part in the press conference on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in July.

•  Two press conferences with the Bulgarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe were held, in February and October, following the respective sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly.

•  In January the Eurojournal program of the National Television aired a short film about IDCCES and the Center for the Study of Democracy and interviews with Emil Georgiev, IDCCES Director, and Dr. Ognian Shentov, CSD President.

•  An interview with Emil Georgiev in connection with the Youth Campaign Against Racism, Anti-Semitism, Xenophobia and Intolerance was aired in the Good Morning Bulgaria morning program of the National Television in January.

Translations and Publications

•  European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Municipal and Regional Life

•  Protocol 11 to the European Convention on Human Rights

•  Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and Explanatory Report

• Council of Europe &emdash; Activities and Achievements

•  Council of Europe &emdash; Facts and Figures

•  Short Guide to the European Convention on Human Rights

•  Police Training Concerning Migrants and Ethnic Relations

•  Equality and Democracy: Utopia or Challenge?

•  Proceedings of the Seminar Bulgarian Women's NGOs: in Beijing and Beyond

In 1995, IDCCES received 1,651 new documents and was visited by 1,102 readers.

II. Democracy and Economic Reform Guide for Bulgaria

This project was developed with the purpose of presenting the key concepts of the economic and political reforms to the general public, and especially to students, in practical and understandable language. One important result of this project was that it met the need for basic knowledge in these areas, and was a particularly welcomed addition to the textbooks available for secondary education in Bulgaria. By targeting the general public, and specifically students at high school age, this project has made a crucial contribution to the democratization of Bulgarian society.

In the course of the work on this public education project, 80 essays were prepared, published in the Capital Press weekly, and broadcast on the Vitosha-Atlantic Radio Network including Vitosha Radio in Sofia, Atlantic Radio in Plovdiv and Atlantic Radio in Varna. Fifty-five of these essays covered economic reform issues and twenty five were on political topics. Two rounds of focus group surveys and three telephone surveys were carried out. In the second round of focus group surveys, a Perception Analyzer System was used. A selection of essays, tailored to the needs and structure of secondary education, was published in the form of a book to be distributed through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in high schools in the country.

The wide impact of the project was achieved by the combination of a comprehensible explanation of key concepts of political democracy and market economy, and the use of different media and formats so as to reach as wide an audience as possible.

III. Fostering Public Awareness in the Year of Tolerance

This project was designed to have a long-term impact on Bulgarian society. It entailed the creation of an electronic database on manifestations of intolerance, xenophobia and ethnic hatred in Bulgaria and the Balkan region, and on ethnic conflicts and their coverage in the Bulgarian press.

The database was developed with two main objectives: to provide decision-makers with reliable data and to serve as an opinion-making factor in Bulgarian society. By December, the number of entries on the specific issues exceeded 1,100.

In 1995, the main domestic political event in Bulgaria was the local elections. During the first round, a report was prepared on the main tendencies of ethnic conflicts, the rise of xenophobia and ethnically or religiously motivated intolerance as reflected in the Bulgarian press. After the second round and through to the end of the year, the minority issue was concentrated mainly on the situation in Kardjali and the possible annulment of the election results. By the end of the period, a new topic emerged: the privatization and possible concentration and management of the privatization resources in ethnically-based privatization funds.

One of the project's aims was to encourage a substantive public debate on the issue of ethnic, religious and nationalistic intolerance. On the basis of an agreement with the Kultura weekly, two broad reviews on ethnic and minority issues were published in the summer and fall of 1995.

The database has been made available to all users at the CSD library. In 1996, it will be placed on the World Wide Web server of the CSD and will become available to Internet users all over the world.

IV. Who is Who in Bulgarian Politics

The project Who is Who in Bulgarian Politics was launched at the end of 1994. Its purpose was to prepare a database, which could be continually enlarged and updated. In addition to the reference material on Bulgarian politicians, it will contain a review of the history, functions, structure and budget of the main state institutions, and the results of the parliamentary, presidential and local elections in the period 1990-1995. It will give a comprehensive picture of political life and the changes that have occurred in Bulgaria since 1989.

The database information was obtained chiefly by means of questionnaires completed by the respondents selected according to a set of criteria: respondents were supposed to be currently active in politics, and to hold leading positions in the social or political life on a national or local level.

The database includes information about the President, the President's Office, the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister's aides, the Council of Ministers, the chairpersons of committees, agencies and other institutions at the Council of Ministers, deputy ministers, regional governors, MPs of the 37th National Assembly, leaders of the main parliamentary and non-parliamentary political parties, leaders of major trade unions and public organizations, Constitutional Court judges, the President of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General, the chairpersons of other institutions who are appointed by the National Assembly, the directors of the National Radio and the National Television as well as the mayors of municipalities with populations exceeding 100,000.

Among the other sources of information were the press centers of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Union of Democratic Forces in the parliamentary election campaign in December 1994, the press, the national news agency BTA and other reference materials. Information originating from sources other than the questionnaires has been double-checked to ensure its reliability.

By the end of 1995, the information was collected and processed as scheduled, and reached the editing stage. In 1996, this database will also be available on the Internet through CSD's server.

V. Building Democracy in Mass Media

This project had the objective of providing a sound information basis for journalists who wish to enhance their skills in the presentation of news, design of news programming, election coverage, and talk shows. For this purpose, the project made available a wide range of information on the role and function of mass media in a modern democratic society.

The project objectives were achieved through the development of a training program, in co-operation with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, the European Institute for International Communication, Maastricht, the Albanian Foundation for European Affairs, Tirana, the Foundation for an Open Society, Bucharest, and the Institute of Europe, Moscow.

The training program was made effective in two seminars held in Athens, from June 22 to July 1, with the participation of 16 Bulgarian journalists from leading newspapers and the electronic media. A follow-up seminar was held in Sofia on December 14-18.

VI. Visit of Bulgarian Journalists to NATO

In November, a group of 12 leading Bulgarian journalists visited the NATO headquarters as well as SHAPE and the North Atlantic Assembly in Brussels, contributing to a better understanding by the Bulgarian public of NATO's role and achievements in the rapidly changing European environment. The visit was co-organized with the NATO Office of Information and Press. As a follow-up, a large, three-page article about NATO was published in the Capital Press weekly.

VII. Library and Book Publishing

In 1995, CSD came to host the World Bank depository library. The establishment of a depository library of the WEU Assembly was also negotiated. Access to the world-wide computer network Internet has contributed much to the efficiency of the library services, and provides much broader information than the mere collection of books and documents.

Bibliographic information on the latest English-language publications is provided on a regular basis from the Blackwell electronic catalogues.

The Council of Europe collection was enlarged by 450 new entries, and the CSD collection of books and documents by 306 new titles, of which 85 were purchased and the rest were donated.

The library received 62 Bulgarian and 127 foreign periodicals, and was visited by over 1,500 readers.

The Book Publishing Program of the Center for the Study of Democracy aims at promoting education in harmony with the modern social, political and economic realities and trends in Bulgaria. In 1995, it prepared six publications, namely:

• Jьrgen Habermas. Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit. Sofia, CSD, 380 pp.; ISBN 954-477-014-3  

• Democracy and Economic Reform Guide. Edited by Tihomir Bezlov. Sofia, CSD, 291 pp.; ISBN 954-477-018-6  

• Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought (in print)  

• Robert Dahl, Modern Political Analysis. Sofia University Press, 203 pp.; ISBN 954-477-013-5  

• The Spanish Transition. A collection of essays (in print)  

• Economic Reforms Around the World. A Collection of articles. Edited by Maria Prohaska. Sofia, CSD/CIPE, 86 pp.; ISBN 954-477-020-8

•  Liegeois, Jean-Pierre. Roma, Gypsies, Travellers. Sofia, CSD/IDCCE, 315 pp.; ISBN 954-477-017-8