-47 - Jean-Jacques Gautier NPM Symposium 2015 Outcome Report • Out on the Inside. The Rights, Experiences and Needs of LGBT People in Prison, Irish Penal Reform Trust, February 2016 • Learning lessons bulletin, PPO investigations, Prison and Probation Ombudsman (UK), Issue 3, January 2017 2.2.6. Ethnic minorities and indigenous prisoners Some ethnic minorities and indigenous prisoners may be vulnerable in detention because of their social status, prejudices and stereotypes they face in society. These are often exacerbated in the criminal justice system. Thus, ethnic minorities and indigenous persons may be overrepresented as criminal defendants, as well as in prisons. This is due to a variety of factors – their social status and related behaviour subject to formal social control, prejudices among the police, prosecutors and judges, their selective targeting by the criminal justice system, lack of translation and interpretation, and poor quality of the legal assistance they receive. Thus, e.g. in Bulgaria, while ethnic minorities represent around 17% of the persons who are arrested by the police according to the official statistics, they constitute more than 50% of the prison population. Like in the case of other vulnerable groups, ethnic minorities and indigenous prisoners should benefit from anti-discrimination provisions at the national and at the international level. Without exception, these provisions include race, ethnicity or affiliation with a national minority as protected grounds. Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the provisions of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities guarantee the rights of ethnic minorities and indigenous people in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language, including where appropriate in interaction with administrative and judicial authorities. Several “soft law” documents of the CoE contain specific standards for treatment of ethnic and linguistic minorities in prisons. They focus on the accommodation of their cultural practices and linguistic needs. Rule 38.3 of the EPR requires that the state use competent interpreters and Prisoners in a Situation of Vulnerability