A/HRC/44/52/Add.1 reliant, which exacerbates the risk of poverty and homelessness, particularly for women. Access to social housing is difficult, owing to the legal provisions that require the applicant to have resided in a particular area for an extended period and for one of the family members to be a Bulgarian citizen; that automatically excludes refugees, including refugee women. Situation of women in detention 58. The Special Rapporteur visited Sliven prison, the only female prison in the country, where she spoke with prison personnel and with a number of inmates, both women and girls. At the time of the visit, there were 220 inmates, including one baby. While the Special Rapporteur acknowledges that vocational education is provided at the request of the detainee, she raises concerns over the inadequate re-entry programmes aimed at preventing reoffending. She was also concerned to hear that some women with whom she spoke had been incarcerated for minor, non-violent offences, for which non-custodial measures should be preferred, as indicated in the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok rules). 59. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the several renovations that have been carried out in the last years in the low-security detention facility at Sliven and notes that the conditions of detention were reasonably fair. Nevertheless, she regrets that no gynaecologist had been available in the three months that preceded her visit and that the position had instead been filled by a dentist. She was informed that only the day before her visit, a gynaecologist had been assigned to the facility. The women with whom the Special Rapporteur interacted said that the health care they received was poor and that they were very rarely referred to medical specialists. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that the number of women affected by mental health issues and disabilities had reached an all-time high of 46 out of 223 inmates26 and that, once released, adequate support was not provided owing to the lack of adequate community-based services. Situation of Roma women and girls who encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination 60. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned that Roma women face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. They remain disproportionately affected by violence, poverty and social exclusion and face obstacles in the enjoyment of their rights. Furthermore, they continue to face discrimination in the fields of education, housing and health and their situation is worse than that of Roma men.27 According to the Roma inclusion index for 2015, only 46 per cent of Roma women had received primary school education, only 7 per cent of them had finished secondary education and only 1 per cent had finished tertiary education.28 61. Although the situation of Roma in the area of employment has slightly improved in recent years, Roma women have a 42 per cent lower employment rate than the total population (17 per cent compared to 60 per cent).29 Discrimination against Roma in the provision of health care is alarming. Only 47 per cent of Roma women in Bulgaria have health insurance, which means that the majority of them do not have access to health-care services, which leads them to be at a higher risk of complication during pregnancy than the majority of the population. 30 The Special Rapporteur was informed that Roma women were 26 Figures provided by the Ombudsperson in her submission to the Special Rapporteur, based on information provided by the prison administration. 27 See European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, “Discrimination against and living conditions of Roma women in 11 EU Member States” (2014). 28 Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation, “Roma inclusion index 2015” (September 2015), p. 37. 29 Ibid. 30 European Roma Rights Centre, “Collective complaint against Bulgaria concerning the segregation and other discriminatory treatment of Romani women in Bulgarian maternity wards” (May 2017), p. 7. 15

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