Bulgaria

The Republic of Bulgaria is a democratic sovereign state in southeastern Europe with a population of 7.5 million and bordered by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. The Constitution guarantees “the life, dignity and rights of the individual and shall create conditions conducive to the free development of the individual and of civil society”.

Constitution and government Education and children’s rights Family, community, society, religious courts and tribunals Freedom of expression advocacy of humanist values
State-funding of religious institutions or salaries, or discriminatory tax exemptions
Discriminatory prominence is given to religious bodies, traditions or leaders
There is a nominal state church with few privileges or progress is being made toward disestablishment
Official symbolic deference to religion
State-funded schools offer religious or ideological instruction with no secular or humanist alternative, but it is optional
Some concerns about political or media freedoms, not specific to the non-religious
Concerns that secular or religious authorities interfere in specifically religious freedoms
No religious tribunals of concern, secular groups operate freely, individuals are not persecuted by the state
Constitution and government
State-funding of religious institutions or salaries, or discriminatory tax exemptions
There is a nominal state church with few privileges or progress is being made toward disestablishment
Official symbolic deference to religion
Education and children’s rights
State-funded schools offer religious or ideological instruction with no secular or humanist alternative, but it is optional
Family, community, society, religious courts and tribunals
Discriminatory prominence is given to religious bodies, traditions or leaders
No religious tribunals of concern, secular groups operate freely, individuals are not persecuted by the state
Freedom of expression advocacy of humanist values
Some concerns about political or media freedoms, not specific to the non-religious
Concerns that secular or religious authorities interfere in specifically religious freedoms
Use of Conscientious Objection clauses resulting in the denial of lawful services to women and LGBTI+ people
Religious or ideological instruction is mandatory in all or most state-funded schools with no secular or humanist alternative
Insufficient information or detail not included in this report
Insufficient information or detail not included in this report

Countries: Kazakhstan

The state is secular, with separation of religious and political authorities, not discriminating against any religion or belief
Insufficient information or detail not included in this report
No fundamental restrictions on freedom of expression or advocacy of humanist values
Insufficient information or detail not included in this report

Countries: no countries relate to this boundary condition

No condition holds in this strand
No condition holds in this strand

Countries: Andorra

No condition holds in this strand
Religious courts or tribunals rule directly on some family or ‘moral’ matters; it is legally an opt-in system, but the possibility of social coercion is very clear
No condition holds in this strand

Countries: no countries relate to this boundary condition

Localised or infrequent but recurring and widespread social marginalisation or prejudice against the non-religious

This condition is unusual in that it is applied in cases where there is some social discrimination, but it is not pervasive or nationwide. This condition is applied when there is sufficient background evidence to warrant the assertion that discrimination is not anomalous but widespread, and this condition may be applied for example even where if there is no legislative discrimination or where the non-religious may have legal recourse against such discrimination. However, societal discrimination (i.e. discrimination by peers, as opposed to state or legal discrimination) is not easily measured, and for this reason the Report does not currently have similar more severe boundary conditions to capture higher levels of social discrimination per se. In principle these may be introduced in future. However, we consider that countries with actual higher levels of social discrimination against the non-religious will generally already meet other higher level (more severe) boundary conditions under this thematic strand.

Countries: Botswana, Greece, Serbia, United States of America

The dominant influence of religion in public life undermines the right to equality and/or non-discrimination

Applied when the influence of religion on public life undermines others’ rights, such as SRHR, women’s rights, LGBTI+ rights.

May be applied when the influence is overt (i.e. when religious laws are applied to undermine others’ rights) or covert (i.e. where religious pressure groups exert influence to affect policy)

Countries: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brunei Darussalam, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Croatia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eswatini, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Liberia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Oman, Paraguay, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Zambia

The non-religious are persecuted socially or there are prohibitive social taboos against atheism, humanism or secularism
Complete tyranny precludes all freedoms of expression and thought, religion or belief

Applied when overriding acts of oppression by the State are extreme, to the extent that the question of freedom of thought and expression is almost redundant, because all human rights and freedoms are quashed by authorities.

Countries: North Korea

Expression of core Humanist principles on democracy, freedom and human rights is brutally repressed
Expression of non-religious views is severely persecuted, or is rendered almost impossible by severe social stigma, or is highly likely to be met with hatred or violence
There is significant social marginalisation of the non-religious or stigma associated with expressing atheism, humanism or secularism
Religious or ideological indoctrination is utterly pervasive in schools
There is a nominal state church with few privileges or progress is being made toward disestablishment

Countries: Bulgaria, Norway, Peru, Rwanda

The non-religious are barred from some government offices (including posts reserved for particular religions or sects)
‘Apostasy’ is outlawed and punishable with a prison sentence

Countries: Bahrain, Comoros, Jordan, Kuwait

‘Apostasy’ or conversion from a specific religion is outlawed and punishable by death
Some religious courts rule in civil or family matters on a coercive or discriminatory basis
Religious authorities have supreme authority over the state

Countries: Iran

State legislation is partly derived from religious law or by religious authorities
Preferential treatment is given to a religion or religion in general

This condition is applied where there are miscellaneous indicators that organs of the state offer various forms of support for a religion, or to religion in general over non-religious worldviews, suggesting a preference for those beliefs, or that the organs of that religion are privileged.

Countries: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Montenegro, Mozambique, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Tunisia, Turkey, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

There is a pattern of impunity or collusion in violence by non-state actors against the nonreligious
State-funded schools provide religious education which may be nominally comprehensive but is substantively biased or borderline confessional
Religious or ideological instruction in a significant number of schools is of a coercive fundamentalist or extremist variety

This condition highlights countries where schools subject children to fundamentalist religious instruction with no real opportunity to question fundamentalist tenets, or where lessons routinely encourage hatred (for example religious or ethnic hatred). The wording “significant number of schools” is not given a rigid quantification (sometimes the worst-offending schools are unregistered, illegal, or otherwise uncounted); however the condition is not applied in cases where only a small number of schools meet the description and may be anomalous, as opposed to being indicative of a widespread problem.

Countries: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia

State legislation is largely or entirely derived from religious law or by religious authorities
Anomalous discrimination by local or provincial authorities, or overseas territories
Religious or ideological instruction is mandatory in at least some public schools (without secular or humanist alternatives)
‘Blasphemy’ or criticism of religion is outlawed and punishable by death
Government figures or state agencies openly marginalize, harass, or incite hatred or violence against the non-religious
Government authorities push a socially conservative, religiously or ideologically inspired agenda, without regard to the rights of those with progressive views
It is illegal to advocate secularism or church-state separation, or such advocacy is suppressed
Prohibitive interreligious social control (including interreligious marriage bans)
Quasi-divine veneration of a ruling elite is enforced, or a single-party regime holds uncontested power, subject to severe punishment
Legal or constitutional provisions exclude non-religious views from freedom of belief
It is illegal to register an explicitly Humanist, atheist, secularist or other non-religious NGO or other human rights organization, or such groups are persecuted by authorities
There is a religious tax or tithing which is compulsory, or which is state-administered and discriminates by precluding non-religious groups
The non-religious are barred from holding government office
Some concerns about children's right to specifically religious freedom

This condition may apply if specifically religious education, religious materials, or specific religious denominations are so tightly controlled that children are in fact over-protected from exposure to religion and are likely unable to explore or construct their own worldview in accordance with their evolving capacities. This condition helps us to classify states (perhaps with secular constitutions) which have criminalized specifically religious beliefs or practices. This condition is not applied if the restricted beliefs or practices are found to be outlawed due to their being of an extremist variety. While this condition does not directly reflect discrimination against non-religious persons or non-religious ideas, it does represent an overall threat to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief; such restrictions could spill over to affect non-religious beliefs later; and they pose a risk of backlash against over-zealous secular authorities or even against non-religious individuals by association.

Countries: China, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guyana, Italy, Kazakhstan, Laos, Madagascar, Mexico, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe

It is illegal or unrecognised to identify as an atheist or as non-religious
It is made difficult to register or operate an explicitly Humanist, atheist, secularist or other non-religious NGO or other human rights organization
Legend
 
Systemic Discrimination
Mostly Satisfactory
Free and Equal
More information about rating table

Constitution and government

Bulgaria adopted a democratic Constitution in 1991 following nearly 50 years of communist rule. Article 13 of the constitution guarantees religious freedom. It declares the state to be secular — “Religious institutions shall be separate from the State” — and that “religious institutions and communities, and religious beliefs shall not be used to political ends”. Within the same article however, Eastern Orthodox Christianity is somewhat ambiguously officiated as the country’s “traditional religion”.[ref]http://www.parliament.bg/en/const[/ref]

The state and the church

The Religious Denominations Act 2002 is clear in pointing out that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s (BOC) special traditional status cannot be used “as grounds to grant privileges or any advantages”. However the constitutional text suggests that there is some form of relationship between the BOC and the state. Article 10 of the Religious Denominations Act states that the BOC “has current meaning in [Bulgaria’s] political life”, while Dr. Peter Petkoff of Brunel University wrote in a journal article that “although the law does not suggest what kind of relationship this is, one could imagine that there is a hint that official holidays and state ceremonies with a religious element will have an Eastern Orthodox framework and will be performed by clergy from the BOC”.[ref]legirel.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article540&lang=fr; biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/33-4_315.pdf[/ref]

The state and other religions

The state requires religious groups to be registered as legal persons; this affords them the power to decide upon the legitimacy of certain faiths and appears to offer the possibility of state discrimination against religious groups. Dr. John Anderson of Oxford University notes the difficulty in reconciling the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom with the requirement that religions be essentially vetted by the state, a state which maintains a special relationship with one particular Christian denomination. In response to this, the dominant traditional religious institution tends to claim that rather than seeking societal privileges or advantages, they simply desire “recognition of a historical, cultural and religious reality”.

Despite these claims, evidence of privilege can be found in the relative allocations of public funds for religious groups. In 2011 the International Coalition for Religious Freedom reported that “of the $1.8million allocated to registered religious groups, $1.4 million is allocated to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church”. In addition to the annual funding allocations, in 2018 the government allotted 25.77 million levs ($14.8 million) to the BOC and the Muslim community in accordance with legislation that passed in 2018 and entered into force during the year stipulating religious groups would receive 10 levs ($6) per follower identified in the 2011 census if the overall number of followers of that religion exceeded 1 percent of the country’s population.[ref]religiousfreedom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=198&Itemid=29[/ref]

In 2016, Bulgaria imposed a nationwide ban on the wearing of face veils in public, including the burqa and the niqab. Women who do not comply with the ban face fines as well as the suspension of social benefits.[ref]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-burqa-bulgaria/bulgaria-bans-full-face-veils-in-public-places-idUSKCN1201FV[/ref]

A populist president

Bulgaria’s president, Rumen Radev, a former Air Force commander with no political experience, is pro-Russian and anti-immigration. He won the apparent support of the Orthodox Church, which itself said that the government should “in no way allow more refugees into our country” on the basis that it wanted to preserve Bulgaria as a God-given country for Orthodox Christians. Though standing as an independent, Radev also won the support of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the demographic base of which leans strongly towards the institutions of the army and the Orthodox Church.[ref]novinite.com/articles/170996/Bulgaria+Should+Not+Let+More+Migrants+In,+Orthodox+Church+Says[/ref]

Education and children’s rights

To date public schools offer religious education on an optional basis, with all officially registered religious groups given the option to request that their beliefs be included in the curriculum. Atheist, humanist or other philosophical alternatives are not included.

Sex education is not mandatory, and according to research just 10 percent of schools teach sex education.

Family, community and society

Gender Equality

Bulgaria has not ratified the Istanbul Convention. Following a sustained campaign by far-right groups a 2018 Constitutional Court issued a damaging ruling declaring the Convention to be unconstitutional.[ref]https://balkaninsight.com/2018/07/27/bulgaria-s-constitutional-court-says-istanbul-convention-not-in-line-with-basic-law-07-27-2018/[/ref] In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women stressed that the campaign against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention had led to the creation of an “anti-gender movement” that resulted in attacks on women and on all those providing services to victims of violence.

Of all 28 EU member states, Bulgaria fared worst in a 2017 European Institute for Gender Equality analysis of the prevalence, severity, and under-reporting of violence against women. Over 30 percent of Bulgarian women in a 2016 study reported experiencing domestic or other gender violence.[ref]https://balkaninsight.com/2016/09/28/gender-based-violence-in-bulgaria-widespread-underreported-experts-warn-09-27-2016/[/ref]

LGBTQ+ Rights

In its ruling on the Istanbul Convention, the Bulgarian Constitutional Court found that the Istanbul Convention’s use of “gender” as a social construct contravened Bulgaria’s Constitution, which specifies a binary understanding of “sex”– male and female – that is “determined at birth.”[ref]https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/10/speak-out-protect-bulgarias-women[/ref]

Bulgaria does not recognise same-sex relationships and same-sex marriages are banned. In 2012, in reference to the planning of an LGBTQ+ Pride Parade planned to take place in the nation’s capital, Father Evgeni Yanakiev of the BOC was quoted in a national newspaper as saying “Our whole society must, in every possible way, oppose the gay parade that is being planned. For this reason, I appeal to all those who consider themselves Christian and Bulgarians. Throwing stones at gays is an appropriate way”. On the day of the parade, according to Human Rights Watch three members of parliament were among those “throwing Molotov cocktails and stones”. Previous LGBTQ+ parades have been marred and disrupted by violence and threats to violence.

Freedom of expression, advocacy of humanist values

Bulgaria has the lowest standards of press freedom in Europe, according to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index.[ref]https://rsf.org/en/bulgaria[/ref] Pro-government news outlets dominate the media landscape. When independent Bulgarian journalists are subject to harassment and threats, critics say that the government does not strongly condemn or curtail these attacks, creating a climate of impunity.

Corruption and collusion between media, politicians, and oligarchs is widespread. The Bulgarian press has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of one man: Delyan Peevski. Reporters Without Borders believes that Peevski controls roughly 80% of Bulgaria’s media market. Peevski is also a member of parliament for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and has close ties to Prime Minister Boyko Borrisov.