Bulgaria

With the active involvement of the "Childhood without Тears" association and the assistance of the State Agency for Child Protection, Bulgaria was included in the list of 16 European countries that have prohibited all corporal punishment of children. The list was made by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children launched in 2001.

On the 8th of June it was announced by government officials that child prostitution cases in Bulgaria went down by 40 per cent over the last two years.
"In 2005, 521 cases of underage girls who prostitute were registered, while the number in 2006 was 308," the Ministry of the Interior's Rumen Petkov told the National Assembly during the regular parliamentary control.

According to Sofia Echo newspaper there is a visible child trafficking boom in Bulgaria and Romania after these countries' European Union access. Free movement within the EU made it easier to carry out child trafficking schemes , the website of People reported.

On July the 19th 2006 Bulgaria and Romania signed a letter ensuring co-operation.

Co-ordinated child protection efforts of Romania and Bulgaria would focus on children living on the streets, victims of child trafficking and school dropouts. Re-structuring of specialised child care centres, measures against abandoning and reintegration of children from minority groups would be among the other priorities of the mutual efforts, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.