A/HRC/44/52/Add.1 45. The Special Rapporteur was informed that police officers did not issue restrictive orders. According to article 65, chapter V, of the Ministry of Interior Act of 2014, the police have the authority to warn orally or in writing a person against whom there is enough evidence that they might commit a crime or a violation of public order. The Special Rapporteur is worried about the effectiveness of these written or oral warnings and raises concerns about the lack of immediate measures to protect women in cases of domestic violence. Education and awareness-raising 46. The Special Rapporteur was informed of the variety of training courses provided to professionals. She welcomes the development by the Ministry of the Interior of a methodological instruction on the activities of police bodies, as foreseen by the Protection against Domestic Violence Act. Nevertheless, she expresses serious concerns about the persistence of stereotypes among police officers and the fact that some police officers do not recognize the gendered dynamics of domestic violence. 47. The National Institute of Justice, the institution in charge of training justice sector professionals, has implemented a project aimed at strengthening the capacity of those professionals to apply European human rights standards and best practices in the area of domestic and gender-based violence. While noting the efforts of the Government to deliver training workshops to prosecutors and judges, the Special Rapporteur points out that, overall, they are not yet familiar with the international standards for combating genderbased violence, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 19 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. They do not therefore apply these instruments in cases of violence against women. Data collection 48. The Special Rapporteur notes that Bulgaria lacks a mechanism for the systematic collection of statistical data or analysis of data and cases related to violence against women, femicide or gender-related killing of women and girls. As a result, the real dimensions and specifics of the problems and issues cannot be easily identified. The Office of the Prosecutor collects data on the number of protection orders issued and, in cases of homicide, data are disaggregated on the basis of sex and the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. Indirect information on the dimensions of domestic violence cases can be derived from the statistics provided by the regional courts on the number of restraining orders issued in domestic violence cases. According to those data, the number of victims of domestic violence who have sought protection and have received restraining orders from the courts has been consistently increasing in the last five years, with 2,398 orders issued from January to 30 September 2019.16 The Special Rapporteur was informed that the higher number of protection orders issued in the past year was partially due to an increased awareness of women’s rights, but it also shed light on the widespread and systematic nature of this violation. VI. Manifestations of violence against women, its causes and consequences Domestic violence against women 49. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, Bulgaria has one of the lowest rates of reporting domestic violence among European Union member States.17 Violence against women continues to be a serious and persistent problem in the country. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality in 2017, at least 28 per cent of 16 17 12 Statistics provided by the Ministry of Interior. European Institute for Gender Equality, “Gender equality index 2019: Bulgaria”.