Contradictory practice by the Supereme administrative court. Access to court for NGOs

Among the core functions of human rights organisations is strategic litigation in defence of vulnerable groups of beneficiaries. In pursuit of its mission and objectives over the past nearly two years FAR has appealed in court against a number of general administrative acts affecting the rights and legitimate interests of those fleeing the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, in 2023 there was a turn in the jurisprudence of the Supreme Administrative Court, which now holds that NGOs registered in the public interest do not have legal standing to bring such public interest lawsuits. The restrictive interpretation imposed by the SAC comes against the backdrop of the growing role of general administrative acts in various spheres of governance. In practice, this deals a serious blow to the ability of FAR and all other human rights NGOs in Bulgaria to defend their target groups against the arbitrary actions of the administration. We are given hope by the dissenting opinions of some judges in the Supreme Administrative Court who submitted that depriving NGOs of legal standing to challenge general administrative acts could lead to iniquity and undermine the foundations of civil society:

• Decree # 9097/29.09.2023 in administrative case # 6009/2023 before SAC
• Decree # 11504/23.11.2023 in administrative case # 9990/2023 before SAC