Law on Religions- (04.12.2002)

New law on religion sparks criticism- (20.12.2002)

An analysis of the law on religion- (12.12.2002)

Opinion by the Rule of Law Institute on the Work Group Bill of Religions Act- (03.12.2002)

Minorities object to religion bill- (17.12.2002)

Three bills on religious freedom introduced in Bulgarian National Assembly - (26.06.2002)

Leaders of Evangelical Churches condemn the wave of anti-Semitism in the country C (22.02.2002)

Version Submitted to the National Assembly

by the Committee on Human Rights and Religions

to the Bulgarian National Assembly

on December 4, 2002

Law on Religions

Chapter One

General Provisions

Art. 1 This law provides for the right of religion[1] of all persons under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Bulgaria and its protection, and the legal status of the religious communities and institutions as well, and their relations with the state.

Art. 2 (1) The right of religion is fundamental, absolute, subjective, personal and inviolable.

(2) The right of religion shall include everybody's right freely to form his/her religious persuasions and to choose, change and worship (practice) freely his/her religion[2] C individually or in collective, in public or in private, by worship, teaching, rites and rituals[3].

Art. 3 (1) Nobody shall be persecuted or limited in his rights because of his religious beliefs. No limitations or privileges based on affiliation or rejection of affiliation to a religion[4] are allowed.

(2) Religious convictions shall not be basis for a refusal to fulfill obligations established by the Constitution.

Art. 4 (1) The religions[5] are free and equal in rights. Religious institutions are separate from the state.

(2)No state interference in the internal organization of the self-administered religious institutions shall be allowed.

(3) The state shall provide conditions for free and unhindered exercise of the rights of religion[6] assisting with maintenance of tolerance and respect between the believers from the different religions and between believers and non-believers.

(4) No religiously based discrimination shall be allowed.

Chapter Two

Right of Religion

Art. 5 (1) The right of religion shall be exercised through forming and manifestation of religious belief, establishment or participation in a religious community, organization of a community's institutions, accomplishment of religious training and education through dissemination of the respective belief orally, in print, by the use of electronic media, in the form of lectures, seminars, courses, programs, etc.

(2) Religious belief may be manifested through carrying out of the respective religious beliefs through worship, rituals, and customs.

(3) The religious belief is expressed in private when it is accomplished from a specified member of the religious community or in the presence of persons belonging to the community, and in public, when its expression can as well become accessible for people not belonging to the respective religious community.

Art. 6 (1)The right of religion shall include the following rights as well:

a) establishment and maintenance of religious organizations with structure and ways of representation which are suitable according to the free understanding of its members;

b) establishment and maintenance of places of worship or religious meetings;

c) establishment and maintenance of proper charitable or humanitarian institutions;

d) production, acquisition and use to the extent necessary for the rites and the customs of a religion or belief according to a related with the worship aims;

e) writing, publishing and dissemination of religious publications;

f) delivery and reception of religious training in a language according to one's own choice;

g) preaching and training of religion or belief in places proper for this purpose according to the community's and institutions, and creation and maintenance of educational establishments that are appropriate according to the communities and institutions, following the requirements of the law;

h) collection and reception of voluntary financial and other support and donations from persons and institutions;

i) observance of the days of rest and respecting religious holidays;

j) establishment and maintenance of relations in the country and abroad with persons and communities on religion and belief issues.

(2) Parents and guardians shall have the right to ensure religious training to their children according to their own convictions.

Art. 7 (1) Freedom of religions shall not be directed against national security, public order, people's health and the morals or the rights and freedoms of persons under the jurisdiction of the republic of Bulgaria or other states. Other grounds for limitations of the right of religion, different from the enumerated, shall not be introduced.

(2) Religious communities and institutions and religious beliefs cannot be used for political purposes.

(3) Rights and freedoms of persons who are members of a religious community shall not be limited by the internal rules, rituals and rites of this community or institution.

(4) Religious communities and institutions shall not attract children and minors under 18 years of age when there is an express refusal of their parents or guardians.

Art. 8 (1) The right of religion shall be limited only with a court decision under the terms of adversary proceedings, if the requirements of Art. 7 are being abused.

(2) The competent court of the first instance in this case shall be Sofia City Court.

Art. 9 Limitation of the right of religion [by a court] may include:

1. Prohibition of dissemination of a certain printed publications;
2. Prohibition of the total publishing activity;
3. Restriction on public manifestations;[7]
4. deprivation of registration of educational, health or social enterprises
5. Cancellation of activities for a period of up to six months;
6. nullifying of the registration of the legal entity of the religion.

Art. 10 The specific religions are characterized[8] among themselves with their name, religious beliefs and the natural persons composing their religious communities.

Art. 11, paragraph 1. The traditional religion in the Republic of Bulgaria is the Eastern Orthodox. It plays a historic role in Bulgarian statehood and has actual meaning in the state's life. Its voice and representative is the autocephalous Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which under the name Patriarchy,[9] is the successor of the Bulgarian Exarchate and is a member of the United,[10] Holy, Congregational and Apostolic Church. It is led by the Holy Synod and is represented by the Bulgarian Partriarch who is Metropolitan of Sofia.

Paragraph 2. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is a legal person. Its structure and management are established by its bylaws.

Paragraph 3. Paragraph 1 and 2 cannot be the basis to grant privileges or any advantages [to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church] over other denominations by a law or sub-law [normative administrative act].

[11]

Art. 12. (1) The relations of the religious institutions with the government and the connected documentation are carried out in the official Bulgarian language.

(2) During performance of religious rituals and during worship another language can be used according to the choice of the religious community and according to the tradition of its practice.

Art. 13 (1) Religions[12] can establish for their needs ritual, houses of prayer or worship for public religious rites and services in facilities owned or rented by the religious institution or local branch. Buildings of the religions[13] are built observing the Law on Land Use of the Territory and the respective sub-laws [administrative normative acts, taking account [religious needs][14].

(2) Religions may organize public activities outside of houses of worship as well.

Art. 14. The secret of confession is inviolable. No cleric shall be forced to testify or to deliver information about facts and circumstances which he came to know during confession.

Chapter Three

Art. 15. Religious communities shall acquire status of a legal person on the conditions and according to the procedures of this law.

Art. 16. Registration of religious communities as a legal person shall be accomplished by the Sofia City Court.

Art. 17. Legal procedures for registration shall be carried out following the procedures of Chapter 46 of Civil Procedure Code.

Art. 18. The Sofia City Court may require expert opinion in relation to the registration of religious communities from the Directorate of Religions.

Art. 19. The statute of a religion must include:

(1) name and headquarters of the religion;

(2) short statement of the religious beliefs;

(3) structure and bodies of the religion;

(4) the manner of specifying of ruling authorities and the period of their mandate;

(5) persons who have the right to represent the religion, the manner of their appointment, their change or replacement and the period of their mandate;

(6) manners of taking decisions and procedures for summoning of sittings of the [supervisory] bodies of the religion;

(7) internal property relations [within the religion];

(8) manners of termination and liquidation.

Art. 20. The Sofia City Court shall manage a public register of religions with the status of legal persons, in which are listed :

1. legal resolution for registration by the Court ;

2. name and headquarters;

3. ruling bodies and representation;

4. names of the persons, which are representatives of the religious institution.

Art. 21.[15](1) Religions can have local branches according to their statute.

(2) Local branches shall be registered by the mayors of the municipalities, according to the place of the [mayor's] headquarters, under the conditions of notification regime, within a 7-days term,[16] on the basis of an application by the central leadership of the religion or authorised by it person according to the statute.

(3) The application, according to paragraph. 2, shall include:

1. The court decision of the Sofia City Court for the registration of the religion and its central leadership, together with the respective power of attorney to the [local] person authorized by the central leadership.

2. A certificate from the central leadership for persons, who shall represent the central leadership in the respective Municipality, the seat and the address of the local subsection.

(4) The mayor shall inform the Directorate of Religions of the performed entry within 3 days after the entry in the [local] register is completed.

(5) The Municipality administration shall maintain a register of local branches of religions.

Art. 23. If it is possible according to the statute of a respective religion, local branches shall register as legal persons in aregional court, within the jurisdiction of the municipality where its headquarters are located.

Chapter Four

Property and Finances

Art. 24.(1) Religions and their branches, which have acquired status of a legal person, according to the procedures of this law shall have right to their own property.

(2) Property of the religious organizations shall include: right of ownership over a property; limited property rights on real estate; fruits from managing of real estate, including rents; profits ordividends from participation in commercial companies or associations of commercial companies; right of ownership of movable property, including securities; Copyright Law rights; income from state subsidies, donations, testaments and others.

(3) The state and municipalities may lease to religious institutions and their local branches free of charge the right to use state or municipal real estate, as well as to support them with subsidies provided in the governmental or municipal budget.

Art. 24. Disposal of the properties of the religions shall be as provided in their statute.

Art. 25. (1) To meet their needs registered religions shall have a right to produce and sell things, connected to their religious activities, rituals, rites..

(2) Activities covered by paragraph 1 shall not be consider as commercial activity under the terms of the Law on Commerce.

(3) Prayer houses, temples, monasteries, objects and persons, connected to worship activity, shall not be used for the purpose of advertising by merchants according to the meaning of the Law on Commerce, without the express agreement of the respective religion.

Art. 26. Registered religions shall have the right to possess and maintain cemeteries at their own expense.

Art. 27. (1) The state shall support and encourage religions registered under this law for their religious, social, educational and health activity through tax, credit and interes rates, customs and other financial and economical relief under the terms and conditions specified in the respective special laws.

(2) When religions use preferences according to paragraph 1, their yearly accounting reports shall go through an obligatory independent financial audit by registered auditors. In these cases the parts of the verified annual accounting reports referring to the use preferences shall be presented at the Ministry of Finance.

(3) When infringement of the law is detected Ministry of finance informs the prosecutor's offices and of the governmental finance control for execution of checks and activities provided in the law.

Art. 28. A religion, which has acquired of legal personalty according to this law, shall be able to establish commercial law entities.

Art. 29. (1) Legal persons with a not-for-profit purpose to support the popularizing of a specific religion, which has acquired status of legal person, can be established after a preliminary consent of the referring religious institution.

(2) Legal entities with ideal[17] purpose according to paragraph 1 have not the right to accomplish activities which represent practice of religion in public. [18]

Art. 30. Distribution of the state subsidy for the registered religions is done under the auspices of the law on the state budget.

Art. 31. Labor relations of the clergy and the officers of the religious institution are arranged according the statute of the religious institutions [in conformity with] the labor and social laws.

Chapter V

Hospitals, Social and Educational Establishments of Different Religions

Art. 32. (1) Those religions registered in accordance with this law, can open up hospitals, social and educational establishments.

(2) The hospitals, social and educational establishments of these religions are established and work according to the decree of the common law and a special arrangement of the law found herein.

Art. 33. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor and Social Care, and the Ministry of Education and Science oversee the observance of the governmental requirements and fulfillment of the activities of the said hospitals, social and educational establishments of different religions.

Art. 34. Religions are not allowed to condition admission into health or social establishments on affiliation with the respective religious community.

Art. 35. (1) Religious institutions, with the approval of the Minister of Education and Science, can open ecclesiastical schools with their own ritual needs in accordance with the law of national education.

(2) The education obtained in these ecclesiastical schools must be equal to the education received in a regular school in accordance with the law of national education.

(3) High schools can be opened by the order and conditions stated in the law for national education for private schools.

(4) The prerequisites for a person younger than 18 years of age to attend an establishment of religious education, according to Art. 1., should be a written agreement of allowance from the parents or legal guardian.

(5) Establishments of religious education cannot hinder the right of receiving obligatory degrees of governmental education stated in the constitution and the law.

(6) The establishments of religious education can open universities in accordance with the order of the law of higher education.

(7) Schools of higher ecclesiastical education can be opened by a proposition from the leadership of the establishment of religious education with an approval from the Ministry Council.

Chapter six

The Department of Ecclesiastical Matters

Art. 36 The Ministry Council must carry into effect the governmental policy in the area of the rights of religion.

Art. 37. The Directorate of Religion is a specialized administration in the Council of Ministers which:

1. coordinates the relations between the executive power and the establishments of religious education;

2. helps the Ministry Council fulfill the governmental policy of sustaining tolerance and respect between the different establishments of religious education;

3. organizes and leads the work of the expert consultative committee of the establishments of religious education;

4. gives expert conclusions and point of view according to that which is contained in this law;

5. gives a point of view concerning the request of permission for foreign ministers to stay in the country who have been invited by the central leadership of the registered establishments of religious education;

6. checks on calls or complaints from citizens for disturbing their rights or the rights and freedom of their relatives by violating the establishments of religious education from the third party.

7. observes that officials do not violate the order of religious rights and freedom;

8. checks on calls or complaints of religious activity not permitted by the law in accordance with Art. 7. of this law, and when needed , informs the agency of the public prosecutor;

9. makes proposals on distribution of the governmental subsidy directed to the registered establishments of religious education;

Chapter seven

Administrative and penal provisions

Art.38. (1) Any person carrying out religious activity in the name of a religion without representational authority is penalized with a fine from BGN 100 to BGN 300.

(2) When the above mentioned act is repeated, the fee is BGN 500 to BGN 1000.

Art. 39. Any person who violates a situation not included in the written law but is a stumbling block to the free organization or inhibits the expression of religious convictions will be fined BGN 100 to BGN 300.

Art. 40. (1) If the articles of this law are violated but the act is not a criminal offense, the person will be penalized with a fee of BGN 500 to BGN 1,000. If a person holding a juridical position performs the act, sanctions will be levied from BGN 500 to BGN 1,000.

(2) For the least important cases, according to /1/, there will be a fine of BGN 100 to BGN 300.

Art. 41. (1) Violation of this law will be noted with public warrants issued by the officials of the establishments of religious education.

(2) The penal orders of applying a sanction by this law will be issued by the director of the establishment of religious education.

Art. 42. Public Acts and Penal Orders, by this law, will be constituted, issued, and appealed according to the order circumspect in the law of Administrative Violations and Sanctions Act.

Transitional and final provisions

1. In the sense of this law:

1. Religion is a set of faith principles and convictions upon the basis of which worship rites and rituals are performed, and a religious community and religious institutions are formed.

2. A religious community is a voluntary union of natural persons for the manifestation of a certain religion, performance of worship, religious rituals and ceremonies.

3. A religious institution is a religious community registered in accordance with the Law on Religions which has the capacity of legal personality, ruling bodies, and a statute.

2. (1) Registered establishments of religious education according to Act 6 from the law of the establishment of religious education (State Official Newspaper) preserve their status of legal entities.

(2) Within a month after the execution, of the law the Directorate of Religion grants to the Sofia City Court the list of registration of the registered establishments of religious education and their regulations and also their standing orders.

(3) The court officially incorporates in the closed-door meetings registered establishments of religious education according to /1/. In this case the court could not refuse an incorporation of the entry of the registration.

(4) The registered local units of the establishments of religious education, existing prior to the validity of the law, which are legal entities are being incorporated officially by the respected district court within their headquarters in a closed-door meeting and by the request of the central leadership of establishments of religious education accompanied with a certificate of this registration of Sofia City Court. Mayors of the Municipalities, within a month of the incorporation of the law, deliver to the district court the registration of the local units of establishments of religious education.

3. Persons who have seceded from the registered religious institution in violation of its By-laws, cannot use an identical name and use or operate its property.

4. (1) According to the request of the registered establishments of religious education the director of the department of Ecclesiastical Matters under the ministry council issues a certificate for the right of ownership between establishments of religious education and pre-existing religious, educational religious, and social welfare legal entities before 1949.

(2) The representatives of the respective establishments of religious education introduce the claim before the Sofia City Court for establishing right of ownership by submitting the certificate to the director of the Department of Ecclesiastical Matters according to /1/.

(3) The Court states its decision, which is being incorporated in the registration according to Act 20.

(4) The decision may be appealed by other registered establishments of religious education, according to the order GPK.

5. Art. 133a of the Law on the Persons and the Family is repealed.

6. 2, para. 2 of the Law on Legal Persons with Not-for-Profit Purpose is amended by replacing the wording "religious activity" with "activity, pertaining to a religion.[19]"

Back to the Table of Contents

New law on religion sparks criticism

by Veselin Toshkov

AP (20.12.2002)/ HRWF Int. (23.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Emailinfo@hrwf.net - The Bulgarian parliament passed a controversial bill Friday which would consolidate the dominant role of the Orthodox Church in this Balkan country.

The bill, which defines Orthodox Christianity as a "traditional religion in Bulgaria," was initiated by the ruling party, the National Movement Simeon II, and is aimed at ending a schism within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The law would require all denominations except the Orthodox Church to receive official court registration.

It passed 150-0 in the 240-seat assembly, with others present boycotting the vote.

Representatives of smaller religions and human rights groups have criticized the bill, arguing that it grants the Orthodox Church a position of privilege and could lead to discrimination against other denominations.

"The bill is undemocratic and contravenes the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights," said Emil Cohen, an official with the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, a secular human rights group.

About 83 percent of the people in this country of 8 million are of Orthodox heritage. There are also smaller Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Protestant communities.

Those who boycotted the vote include legislators from a party whose members are mostly ethnic Turks, and Muslim.

They condemned the bill as a violation of religious equality.

A legislator from the opposition Union of Democratic Forces, Ivan Ivanov, said opposition lawmakers would appeal the decision to the country's Constitutional Court. The constitution calls for separation of church and state.

The bill was primarily meant to end a deep rift between supporters of current Patriarch Maxim and backers of his rival, Metropolitan Innokentii.

Innokentii claims to be the church's legitimate leader and accuses Maxim of having cooperated with the communists. Maxim took over leadership of the church in 1971, when the country was still under communist rule.

Bulgarians regained religious freedom in 1989 after almost five decades of forced atheism under the communist regime.

Back to the Table of Contents

An analysis of the law on religion

HRWF Int. (12.12.2002)/ Website http://www.hrwf.net - Emailinfo@hrwf.net -

A draft law on religion is currently moving rapidly through the Bulgarian National Assembly. On Tuesday, December 3, the Committee on Human Rights and Religions held a special meeting. During a session of the Committee held on December 2, representatives of various smalle religious groups were expelled from the Committee Meeting. There have apparently been indications that the Committee does not intend to submit this law to the Council of Europe for review. The head of the prevailing party was received by Patriarch Maxim on Tuesday. He told the Patriarch at the time that the legislation would be passed before Christmas. W. Cole Durham, Jr. (*) has sent Human Rights Without Frontiers Int. his personal assessment of that draft legislation in which he notes several serious problems with the legislation.

The Status of the Orthodox Church

The law sets forth fairly detailed characteristics of the Orthodox Church. It makes it very clear that there can be only one Orthodox Church in Bulgaria. This appears to be an effort to force a resolution of the schism that has been existence in Bulgaria for many years. This result would seem to be clearly inconsistent with decisions of the European Court such as the Bessarabian Church case (involving Moldova) and Hasan and Chaush (involving Bulgaria. The law has a clause that indicates that the provisions about the Orthodox Church should not be used as a basis for privileging it over others, which is to be appreciated, but is not totally reassuring.

Limitation Clauses

The draft deals with limitation clauses in ways that are inconsistent with European Human Rights standards. Article 7 enunciates certain limitation provisions that are close to (but different from) European standards under Article 9 ECHR, and then says (in Article 9) that in case of abuses of (or indicated by?) Article 7, a court may impose a fairly extensive list of sanctions on religious groups. These include:

(1) Prohibition of dissemination of a certain printed publications;

(2) Prohibition of the total publishing activity;

(3) Restriction on public manifestations;

(4) Deprivation of registration of educational, health or social enterprises

(5) Cancellation of activities for a period of up to six months;

(6) Nullifying of the registration of the legal entity of the religion.

Registration

The draft would again involve mayors in registration issues. This has proven very problematic in the past. See Articles 21-22.

Vague Provisions

The law remains vague in many of its provisions about whether religions or believers have the right to manifest their belief if they are not registered. The transitions provisions (Section 5) repeals a provision under prior law which prevented religious groups from registering as not-for-profit organizations. Article 5 contains a very unusual provision that differentiates public and private practice of religion as follows: "The religious belief is expressed in private when it is accomplished from a specified member of the religious community or in the presence of persons belonging to the community, and in public, when its expression can as well become accessible for people not belonging to the respective religious community." Article 29(2) provides that nonprofit organizations do not have "the right to accomplish activities which represent practice of religion in public." The precise interaction of these provisions is unclear, but the intent appears to be to say that only registered religious organizations have the right to engage in the public manifestation of religion. This is clearly inconsistent with OSCE commitments and provisions of the European Convention that protect the right to practice religion with or without legal entity status.

Limitations of the rights and powers of religious groups

Many of the rights and powers of organizations and of communities are tied to registration status.

There are a number of additional problems with the legislation. I am sending this to you as rapidly as possible so that you will have access to a copy of the legislation. This is moving very rapidly, and action could be taken on the legislation at any time.

If I can be of further assistance on this, please let me know. An important expert who has up to the minute information on the law in Bulgaria is a human rights lawyer named Atanas Krussteff. He can be reached at his office +359 (2) 315857. (This is also a fax number.) His cell phone is: +359 (88) 420 398

(*) Gates University Professor of Law and Director,

BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies, BYU Law School Provo,

Utah 84602 USA Office: (801) 422-2281 Fax: (801) 422-0390

Email: durhamc@lawgate.byu.edu

Back to the Table of Contents

Opinion by the Rule of Law Institute on the Work Group Bill of Religions Act

By Lachezar Popov

Rule of Law Institute (03.12.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (18.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - The bill proposed is a relatively successfulframework of the arrangements relating to the denominations issue, and in our opinion, it would be best to submit it to the officially registered Denominations for comments and proposals. The Denominations insisted on such attitude towards them at the last meeting held with them, related to the Bill and organized by the Rule of Law Institute /RLI/ on 25th November, 2002.

The improvements of the Bill proposed, as specified hereunder, would make it resistant against attacks to the effect that some of its provisions are discriminating.

We propose that a second sentence be added to the text of Art. 4, Par. 4 of the Bill, with the following wording: "Discrimination based on religions or denominations shall mean any differentiation, exclusion, restriction, preference, omission or other difference in treatment based on religions or denominations and aiming at or influencing to the effect of annulment or harming, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, the acknowledgement, the equal application or exercising of human rights and the fundamental freedoms in civil, political, economic, social or cultural life." We have already published this text on page 142 of the book issued by the RLI, Denominations and Law. Monitoring of the Religious Freedoms in the Republic of Bulgaria C Reports and Proposals for A Bill and Amendments to Acts; Signals for Infringed Religious Freedoms, where the definition of discrimination is provided after many years' work by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Santa Clara Institute.

Art. 7, Par. 4

The proposal restricts the rights of children. Pursuant to Art. 14, Sec. 3 of the Children Rights Convention, State Gazette issue 55/12.07.1991, "The freedom to express one's own religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are provided by law and are necessary for the protection of public safety, order, health or morality and others' rights and freedoms". According to the provisions of Art. 14, Sec. 2 of the Convention, the parents or guardians shall provide guidance to the child while exercising this right, in a manner corresponding to the development and the abilities of the child. Therefore it can be assumed that the logic of the Convention is: as a child advances in age, it shall have greater and greater rights granted by law to perform legally valid actions by expressing freely its will, and the parents shall have only supervisory functions.

Art. 14 of the Child Protection Act /CPA/, State Gazette issue 48/13.06.2000, pursues similar logic: "The attitude to religion of children aged 14 to 18 shall be determined by consent between them and the parents or the guardians". CPA even grants special importance to the opinion of a child above the age of 10 /Art. 15/.

The Portuguese Act on Religious Freedom provides underage persons above the age of 16 to make their own choice relating to the freedom of conscience, religion and beliefs.

The legal arrangement in Norway provides children above the age of 15 with the right to join or reject participation in a religious community. Children above 12 may express their opinion referring to membership in a religious community.

The law of Estonia also provides persons above the age of 15 with the right to determine individually their belonging to a religious community.

The Macedonian law states that a religious rite with an underage child above the age of 10 may be performed only with its consent.

In Swiss legislation the regulation is reverse; each citizen of a canton can state his/her non-belonging or leaving of any of the three officially recognized churches, including his/her children aged below 16. Therefore children above 16 have the right to individually decide on this issue.

It can be seen in all of these norms that there is a differentiated treatment of the group of underage persons according to their age. Children aged 14 to 18 have the necessary intellectual maturity and information /especially in the times we live in/ to make their own choice with regard to the religion and denominations that they will pursue and the religious community which they will join.

We propose that the provisions of Art. 7, Par. 4 be reworked to the following effect: "Underage persons above the age of 14 shall have the right to make their own choice with regard to the freedom of conscience, religion and denominations. The religious communities and institutions shall not actively draw into their activity persons aged below 14, if there is express non-agreement by their parents or guardians".

The Labour Code provides, under Chapter 15, Section I, the possibility for underage children to be admitted to work, without this being subject to consent by their parents or guardians, i.e. the law takes the declaration of intention of an underage child as being sufficient for admittance to work.

Art. 27 of the Obligations and Contracts Act declares void the contracts with a person lacking legal capacity. Persons lacking capacity are only persons under the age of 14, according to Art. 3 of the Persons and Family Act, as well as the completely prohibited 쨨C of age and underage persons, according to Par. 5, Par. 1 of the Persons and Family Act.

Art. 4, Par 2. Sentence II specifies that underage persons may conclude common minor transactions for meeting their current necessities and to have at their disposal what they have acquired by their own labour, which confirms our conclusion related to Art. 301 et seq. of the Labour Code and the declaration of intention of an underage person when admitted to work.

The provisions of Art. 7, Par. 4 of the Bill might also be amended by regulating the right of denomination of underage persons by the following text:

"Should a dispute arise as to the parents' consent, the said dispute may be resolved subject to the provisions of Art. 72 of the Family Code by the Regional Court.

Should a dispute arise as to the religious activity of an underage person, the said dispute should be resolved by reference to the requirements of Art. 14, par. 2 of the Child Protection Act", with reference to Art. 10, Par. 2, Art. 11, Par. 4, Art. 12, Art. 13, Art. 21 and Art. 23 of the same Act, i.e. the dispute shall be resolved through the Child Protection Agency, the social services of the municipalities and the regional court.

Art. 9.

It outlines the possible ways of restricting the right of religion, but only two rather extreme measures are specified, which, at the same time, lead to conditions of deprivation of the right of association. This provision should be amended also by alternative and lighter measures, in terms of their extent, such as, for example, fines and temporary termination of activity for a term of up to 6 months, proposals for imposing lighter admonition sanctions. These lighter measures should precede the proposed ones C withdrawing of the registration of a specialized establishment of a particular denomination or deletion of the registration of the denomination itself, which we consider extreme and unjustifiably severe. According to RLI, such should be the overall legal logic and the principles of law underlying the legislative penal provisions.

Art. 11, Par. 2

It specifies the position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Christian Church /BOCC/ as a legal entity, the structure and management of which are specified by its Articles of Association. The provision proposed establishes the privileged position of a denomination traditional for the country. As provided by this law, BOCC is pronounced a legal entity and is excluded from the common mode of registration with the Sofia City Court. In order to preserve the principle of legal equality of the various denominations, BOCC should be subject to the common legal order irrespective of the fact that it is the most popular denomination. It is advisable that our arguments expressed with reference to Art. 4, Par. 4 of the Bill and concerning discrimination should be taken into consideration.

Art. 17

It specifies that the denominations' registration proceedings shall be effected as provided by Chapter 46 of the Code on Civil Procedure. In this case, the Court shall pronounce its judgement at a closed session, save when the court itself shall rule otherwise.

In view of the fact that a wide range of people are interested in the registration of a denomination, it is advisable that a possibility for greater transparency of proceedings be envisaged, as provided by Art. 7, Par. 3 of the Political Parties Act /State Gazette, issue 30 dated 28.03.2001/, i.e. the application should be considered at an open session. This would provide publicity of the registration process.

Art. 21, Par. 1

It specifies that Sofia City Court shall deny registration to a religious community if data of an offence pursuant to Art. 7 are available.

The term "data" is not particular enough and is associated to rumor or general information. In view of the transparency of proceedings, this term should be replaced by "irrefutable evidence". Data of an offence pursuant to Art. 7 may be grounds for assigning a preliminary inspection pursuant to Art. 191 of the Penal Procedure Code. But, according to RLI, it should be reverted to denial of registration only when there are absolute and irrefutable evidence of violation of legal requirements, since denial is a serious and extreme measure, which should be used with great caution, in the context of the freedom and the right of association in the form of legal entities.

Art. 24, Par. 3

It excludes "... collection of sums from the members of a religious community by compulsion, or compelling them to make donations".

The text proposed should be dropped out, since compulsion has already been ruled out an offence pursuant to the Bulgarian legislation by Art. 143, 144 of the Penal Code, and it is punishable in the common order. The performance of the action 'compulsion' itself renders the free will of the donator void, pursuant to the law. Art. 226, Par. 3 of the Obligations and Contracts Act provides that "a donation is also null and void when it, or the single motive for which it was made, contravene the law or good morals". The existence of these provisions in the Penal Code and the Obligations and Contracts Act constitute sufficient legislative framework for sanctions against abuse of the right of the members of a religious community to make voluntary donations; the inclusion of such provisions would constitute just an unnecessary repetition of legislative provisions.

Art. 25, Par. 2

It specifies that the annual accounting reports of the denominations benefiting from preferences pursuant to Par. 1 shall be subject to mandatory independent financial audit; in our opinion, 'independent financial audit' had better be replaced by 'inspection by a certified public accountant'. The provision regulating that the certified accounts shall be submitted to the Council of Ministers constitutes an enhanced form of control, which had better be avoided. The Denominations are separate from the State /Art. 4 of the Bill/. This provision could be taken as publicly justified in case Par. 1 would regulate complete exemption of the registered Denominations from tax, customs and other fiscal obligations /Art. 48, Par. 1, Sec. 4 of the Local Taxes and Fees Act with reference to Art. 46, Par. 2, Sec. 4 of the Non-profit Legal Persons Act/. It is justifiable for the State to exercise enhanced financial control only for grants in aid and other funds provided directly to a particular Denomination by the State, and the audit control is limited only to the particular funds, and not for the whole accounting balance sheet of a Denomination.

The Estonian law, by its articles under the Supervision section, envisages that "revision and audit shall be performed in accordance with a procedure as provided for in the articles of association of the religious association.

The members of the governing body and of the other bodies of the religious association shall be obligated to admit controllers and auditors to inspect all documents necessary for the performance of the audit and to provide the necessary information.

The controllers and auditors shall prepare a report with regard to the results of the revision or audit and they shall submit this report to the authority that has required their performance."

Art. 30

Here the term "follows" is used, which is characteristic of police law. This term is not precise in the context of the whole sentence. The Denominations Directorate should not be assigned police, but control functions. A suitable text in view of the preconditions regulated under Art. 7, Par. 1 could be: "The Directorate may examine signals of infringement of the subjective right of denomination in medical, social and educational establishments of the Denominations."

Art. 32, Para 4

The proposal should be rendered in further detail, for the particular age ranges: from 10 to 14 years, and from 14 to 18 years, as is the case pursuant to the Child Protection Act, and in view of the children's rights both of religion and of education, taking into consideration our arguments with regard to Art. 7, Par. 4 of the Bill.

Administrative and Penal Provisions

The sanction "fine", envisaged under the unnumbered articles, for physical persons who perform religious activity on behalf of a denomination without being duly authorised to this effect, should be reduced, and the upper limit of the fine should not be greater than BGN 300 /three hundred/, or three minimal salaries for Bulgaria.

It is advisable that the sanctions pursuant to this chapter of the Bill be up to the rate of three minimal salaries, which is viewed as a considerable amount by the common citizens and would be a sufficient prevention, without being an overwhelming burden for payment.

Back to the Table of Contents

Minorities object to religion bill

by Felix Corley

Keston News Service (17.12.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (17.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Religious minority leaders and human rights activists have rotested about provisions of the new religion bill which many fear will be adopted this week. The Committee on Human Rights and Religions submitted the bill to the National Assembly on 4 December and the final reading began inparliament on 14 December. Consideration was due to resume on 15 December, but some Christian communities objected to holding the debates on a Sunday and further consideration was postponed until 18 December. "We are not satisfied with this draft law. Some provisions are not democratic," Pastor Theodor Angelov, a Sofia-based pastor who heads the European Baptist Federation,told Keston News Service on 16 December. "As a member of the Hare Krishna community, I can see discrimination in the bill between the Orthodox Patriarchate and other faiths," Asen Genov (RadhaVinoda Dasa) told Keston from Sofia the same day. "This is a Christmas present to the Patriarchate." He said many other minority faiths share their negative view of the bill. "There has been no discussion with religious communities," he complained.

If adopted, the law would require minority religions to obtain court approval to operate in the country. The proposed law also would establish the Orthodox Church as Bulgaria's traditional faith and would in practice deny recognition to breakaway Orthodox clergy opposed to Patriarch Maksim, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate (see separate KNS article).

On 14 and 15 December, two demonstrations against the proposed new law were held outside parliament in central Sofia. In a remarkable show if unity, the demonstrations were led by the Orthodox Synod loyal to Metropolitan Innokenti of Sofia (who is part of the breakaway Orthodox Church that does not recognise the authority of the Patriarchate), but were joined by Protestants and members of other faiths. The Sofia paper Standard reported on 16 December that some 10 priests and 40 laypeople of the Orthodox Synod took part in the 15 December protest. owever, the Tolerance Foundation - a Sofia-based religious freedom group - said each demonstration attracted about a thousand participants from many faiths.

At the 15 December demonstration the Synodal Orthodox complained that the bill would favour only the Patriarchate and enable it to take possession of all Orthodox property in the country, including the churches they still occupy. They said that they were determined to fight to the death if necessary and would soon convene a council which would decide how their property would be defended. Parliamentary deputy Ivan Ivanov told the demonstrators that some provisions of the law contradicted other laws and if adopted - the Constitutional court would be asked to repeal it.

Also expressing concern was a senior cleric of the Eastern-rite Catholic diocese of Sofia. "This law will alter the status of all religious communities," Father Blagovest Vanghelov, vicar general of the diocese, told Catholic News Service on 12 December. "We all have virtually the same objections Catholics, Protestants and Muslims - and have made our views clear in a series of petitions."

The call for religious communities to be allowed to voice their concerns about the bill before parliament adopts it was backed by the working group on the religion bill formed by the Sofia-based Rule of Law Institute. A 3 December statement signed by Lachezar Popov, the Institute's chair, declared that "it would be best to submit it to the officially registered Denominations for comments and proposals". Religious groups represented at a 25 November meeting of the working group had already proposed such a move.

The process of adopting a new religion law has been long drawn out. In May parliament adopted three widely different drafts in the first reading. A special working group was then created within the framework of the Commission on Human Rights and Religion. Emil Cohen, president of the Tolerance Foundation, reported on 16 December that about two weeks ago a ruling party deputy Borislav Tsekov "insulted" experts provided by religious organisations, provoking their departure. After months of slow progress, he reports, the draft was completed "within two or three days" and sent to parliament. "The Commission has denied its previous decision to send the draft to the Council of Europe for review," he complained.

"This bill should be sent to the Council of Europe for expert analysis," Genov added, in views widely shared by religious communities. "The previous draft was severely criticised by the Council of Europe maybe that is why they don't want to send them this draft."

A seminar organised by the European Centre on Jurisprudence in Sofia on 13 December and attended by more than forty religious representatives called on the National Assembly to halt the adoption of the bill and to send it to the Council of Europe for review. The Chief Mufti stated that the Muslim community would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights because of the preference the bill gives to the Orthodox Church. An appeal to President Georgi Parvanov to veto the future law has been signed by all Protestant Churches, by one of the wings of the Orthodox Church as well as by many other religious and human rights organisations.

Pastor Angelov believes the law still bears the imprint of the Communist past. "Officials believe religious activities are something dangerous that should be controlled," he told Keston. "This is the thinking behind this law - and it is this thinking that makes me afraid."

Back to the Table of Contents

Three bills on religious freedom introduced in Bulgarian National Assembly

By Colleen Chen, Human Rights Without Frontiers

HRWF International Secretariat (26.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Three bills on religious freedom have been introduced in the Bulgarian National Assembly as possible ways to develop current guarantees of freedom of religion in Bulgaria.

The Milchev-Krikoryan and Tzekov bills in their current forms have been perceived as constricting the right to religion considerably. The Mestan-Yusseine bill, on the other hand, develops the application of a right to religion in Bulgaria in a manner that is less restrictive. The right to freedom of religion in Bulgaria is guaranteed both in the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria (CRB) and the European Convention on Human Rights, which preempts Bulgarian internal law. Thus, any law in this sphere is meant to develop and define these rights as already settled.

The Milchev-Krikoryan bill centers around the creation of a Directorate of Religious Confessions, as well as a number of provisions that require religious communities to exclusively operate through registered institutions. Criticism of the Directorate has focused on its resemblance to communist-era ? conscience police ? agencies as it regulates both content and form of religious expression through these institutions. The Directorate has a number of monitoring functions such as the authorization to religious groups for the involvement of foreign religious ministers, or the keeping of a registry of unregistered religious groups.

The mandatory association provision of the Milchev-Krikoryan bill, requiring religious communities to operate through institutions, have also been perceived as troubling, as they de-emphasize the individual aspect of the right to freedom of religion in order to more easily regulate religious expression. ? Institutions ? are religious groups with status of legal entity granted through a restrictive and complicated registration process in which jeopardizing ? national security ? and ? pursuit of political purposes ? are grounds for denial of status as legal entity to religious groups. Religious groups are separated from non-profit organization status, as the latter are forbidden from manifesting religious beliefs, which is also perceived by critics as a severe curtailment of the freedom to obtain and distribute information.

This bill also contains permit requirements for public expression of religious beliefs and imposes fines for exercise of the right that is not controlled by the state, including for the teaching of religious belief within a program not approved by the state.

The Tzekov bill is similar to the Milchev-Krikoryan bill in its attempt to facilitate government control of the right to freedom of religion. It contains many of the same provisions--here as well religious expression is tied to an institution, with the added point that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is granted a preferential status. There is also a registration requirement for religious groups. Dissolution of these groups as legal entities is possible through an ? expert opinion ? from the Directorate of Religious Confessions on grounds of jeopardizing national security or pursuit of political purposes. This bill also requires religious groups to obtain permission to preach and teach in public.

Critics of the both the Milchev-Krikoryan and Tzekov bills also point out the fact that it addresses Bulgarian citizens, possibly assuming that non-Bulgarian citizens have no religious rights to be covered.

The Mestan-Yusseine bill, titled ? Law on Religious Rights and Religious Association, ? is considerably more progressive than either of the other two bills, although some provisions could pave the way to possible abuse. Also, this bill has a provision like the other two draft laws that states that the court can deny registration to a religious group if it has political purposes or jeopardizes national security.

The attached document, ? Analysis of three bills on freedom of religion in Bulgaria, ? by Victor Kostov, presents a detailed analysis of the three draft laws and a number of recommendations for a bill on religious freedom which would be consistent with the ECHR. Kostov's main remark is that freedom of religion must remain an individual right and may not be dependent of registered associations or organizations.

Back to the Table of Contents

Leaders of Evangelical Churches condemn the wave of anti-Semitism in the country

Tolerance Foundation (20.02.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (21.02.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - On February 16, 2002 the leaders of five Evangelical Churches in Bulgaria [1] made a press conference, entitled 'Bulgarian pastors against xenophobia and anti-Semitism'. They expressed their anxiety for the rising, by their opinion, of wave of anti-Semitism in Bulgaria. The occasion for the event was a recently published book 'The boomerang of the evil', written by Mr. Volen Siderov, a deputy editor-in-chief of the one of the main Bulgarian newspapers C 'Monitor', as well as the threat of groups of skinheads targeted against the beggars, Roma people and minorities in general. That book has sharply expressed anti-Semitic character and present by itself a collection of old and many times repeated libels against the Jews. According the book the Jews are authors of all bad events during the all history of the world. It has been preceded by lot of anti-Semitic and openly fascist (for example C "The lie for the Holocaust" , "Political speeches" by Goebbles, a lot of titles of Mussolini and, of course, the notorious work 'Mein Kampf' by Hitler etc.) books. The religious leaders stated that similar books that have been sold out very well, cast a blur on the name of Bulgaria. They declared that most important historical merit of Bulgarian people is the saving of the Bulgarian Jews from the Nazi's camps during the time of the Holocaust. They sharply condemned the way of the anti-Semitic propaganda and said it has been an extremely malefic influence on the souls of the young generations. At the end of the event they said: 'If there are now in Bulgaria people who desire death of all Jews, our answer as Bulgarians can be only one C We are Jews as well!' After this they postured in front of the TV cameras with labels 'Jew'. After the event they told to the President of Tolerance Foundation they will undertake new actions in order to attract the attention of the public opinion, media and politicians on the growing anti-Semitic propaganda in Bulgaria as well as on all acts of xenophobia and discrimination toward the minorities and especially towards Roma [2]. Tolerance Foundation greets the action of some leaders of Protestant churches and supports it. There is not a tradition in Bulgaria leaders of religious communities to express their opinions on important public issues and the action of the heads of some Protestant churches should be thought as a step in right direction. We hope that this first step will transform itself into systematic campaign against the anti-Semitism, xenophobia and ethnic discrimination. Tolerance Foundation will take support and will take part in all future steps of that campaign.

Notes:

[1] Bishop Vassil Elenkov from the National Alliance of the United Church of God, Pastor Pavel Ignatov from Bulgarian Church of God, Pastor Ludmil Yatanski from 'Good News' Church, Pastor Angel Pilev from 'Zion' Church and Pastor Ivan Hazarbasanov from Christian center C Sofia

[2] As it is well known the situation of the Roma minority in Bulgaria is extremely bad. For example, there are now great riots of several thousands Roma in Plovdiv (the second by population town in Bulgaria) against the state company that provide them electricity because it is unable to them to pay their bills.

On behalf of Tolerance Foundation:

Emil Cohen,

President

Back to the Table of Contents

[1] Veroizpovedanie. This term has the two meanings of religion C 1) faith principles and forms of worship; and 2) organisation on the basis of 1).

[2] Veroipovedanie.

[3] This is the term by which the official text of the ICCPR and ECHRFF in Bulgarian translates "observance".

[4]veroizpovedanie.

[5]Veroizpovedaniya.

[6]Veroizpovedaniya.

[7] The reference to manifestations here is intended broadly, and is not restricted to demonstrations, ceremonial processions, and the like.

[8]Or "distinguished," "differentiated." The Bulgarian term here is translated literally as "characterized" and has some of the same sense of awkwardness that the word "characterized" has in this context.

[9] The Bulgarian for "patriarchate."

[10] The original uses the word "one" as in oneness.

[11]The implication appears to be that an individual cannot be a member of more than one religion, regardless what the religion itself believes on this issue.

[12] Religion.

[13] Religion

[14]The text is unclear as to who must take the religious needs, symbols, etc. into account, and in particular, whether state officials are required to accommodate these needs.

[15]The original article 21 from the Working Group Draft was dropped because it merely duplicates the procedures of the Civil Procedure Code referred to in Article 17.

[16]The idea is that the mayor is obliged to register the local branch within seven days after receiving the notice (including the required application). That is, this is a notice regime, not an approval regime.

[17] In Bulgarian law, ideal purpose organizations means not-for-profit, and includes both public benefit and mutual benefit organizations.

[18] This provision prevents registration of a religion as a mere association. Later in this law (paragraph 5 of the transitional provisions) repeals Article 133(a) of the Law on the Persons and Family which provides that "not-for-profit associations and foundations with religious and religious-educational purpose are registered by the court after the consent of the Council of Ministers." The new law on Not-for-Profits provides that organizations with religious activites shall be registered according to a separate law. This excludes the possibility that religious organizations can be registered under the new Not-for-Profit Law. In the current law, there appears to be a repeal of this restriction. In paragraph 6, they replace "religious activities" with "activity which is specific for a religion"which really effectuates no change.

[19] "Religiong" here is "veroiozpovedanie."