Project Partners

Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) – Sofia, Bulgaria

CSD is a Bulgarian multi-disciplinary think tank combining a broad range of capacities – survey research, legal and regulatory analysis, policy expertise in market economy transition, European integration, institution building, security sector reform, and anti-corruption strategies and practices. Established in 1990, CSD pioneered the analysis and monitoring of corruption in Bulgaria in the late 1990s through its Corruption Monitoring System and annual Corruption Assessment Reports. With regards to conventional crime, the CSD introduced victimization studies in the country through its annual Crime Trends survey and analysis report. CSD also serves as Executive Secretariat to the Southeast European Legal Development Initiative (SELDI), an effort of leading not-for-profit organizations, representatives of government institutions and experts from the countries of Southeast Europe aimed at public-private coalition building for legal development in those countries. CSD is the Bulgarian National Focal Point of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.

CSD will contribute extensively, among other things, to the review of state-of-the-art indicators (WP2), the conceptualization of new and improved indicators of public confidence in justice (WP3) and the dissemination of the project results in the East of Europe (WP7). The personnel involved in the project will be:

Maria Yordanova (Ph.D. Sofia), Director of the Law Program, has coordinated CSD’s legal and judicial reform projects .Her areas of specialization include criminal justice policy, promotion and protection of human rights as well as development of new instruments for creating uniform statistics about corruption related crime. Dr. Yordanova has written a number of publications and has edited many books in the field of law and judicial reform.

Miriana Ilcheva (LL.M. Sofia and Geneva), Project Assistant at the Law Program, has worked on projects for human rights protection, capacity building of criminal justice actors and has contributed to legislative drafting on victim and witness protection. Her areas of expertise include human rights, criminal justice and judicial reform.

Dimitar Markov (LL.M. Sofia), Project Coordinator at the Law Program, contributes to CSD’s activities in the area of judicial reform. He contributes to the development of the criminal law chapters of the annual Corruption Assessment Reports. His areas of expertise include judicial reform, criminal law and procedure, Human Rights.

Philip Gounev (MA Columbia), Research Fellow at the European Program, is conducting research related to crime, weapon-export controls, and discrimination.

Ognian Shentov (Ph.D. Sofia), Chairman and Founding Member of the CSD, has published on the issues of transition to democracy, democratic changes and stability in Europe. He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the New Bulgarian University (Sofia) and serves in the Steering Committees of the Coalition 2000 anti-corruption initiative, the Judicial Reform Initiative. He is a member of the National Crime Prevention Commission.

Boyko Todorov (MA Florida State), Program Director at the CSD, has coordinated CSD’s EU accession projects. His areas of specialization include the development and promotion of a methodology of benchmarking corruption and evaluating anti-corruption policies.

Contacts: Maria Yordanova, maria.yordanova@online.bg

Website: www.csd.bg