The European Union (EU) should continue to press candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe to improve arms trade controls, Human Rights Watch said today. Tomorrow, the EU is expected to release the latest annual reports assessing the progress of individual candidates toward accession. These will help pave the way for final decisions, expected later this year, on the next round of EU enlargement.

Anticipated legal reforms in Bulgaria mark an important step toward improved control over the arms trade, Human Rights Watch and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee said today. The Bulgarian parliament is expected to vote shortly to adopt changes to the country's law on the foreign trade in weapons.

Violence against children is a bigger problem than governments acknowledge, and in fact is often carried out by officials of the state, Human Rights Watch charged in a new study released today.

The upcoming state visit to Bulgaria by U.S. President Bill Clinton, scheduled for November 21-23, presents an important opportunity to press Bulgarian officials on the urgent need for arms trade reforms. Human Rights Watch pointed out that it would be negligent for Clinton to visit Bulgaria without addressing the country's long history of supplying weapons to human rights abusers.

NATO and the European Union should press Bulgaria to stop transferring weapons to armed forces that are guilty of human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.