Bulgaria
Bulgaria regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Bulgaria's hate crime laws are a combination of specific penalty enhancements and substantive offences. The data reported to ODIHR do not present separately cases of hate crime, incitement to hatred and discrimination. The authorities responsible for collecting hate crime data are the Interior Ministry's Co-ordination, Information and Analysis Directorate; the Supreme Judicial Council's Commission on Professional qualification, IT and statistics; the Supreme Court of Cassation's Criminal College; the Supreme Prosecutor of Cassation's Analysis Unit; and the National Statistical Institute.
How hate crime data is collected
There is no specific system in place for recording hate crimes, which are registered as any other criminal offence. The methodological guidelines issued by the Ministry of Interior govern the process of crime registration, data collection and compilation of police statistics.
The recording officer can describe any motive for the crime in a specific field of the crime report. The same field is also used to provide preliminary legal qualification by referring to the relevant provisions of the criminal code, including subsections. This is relevant because some offences in the criminal code include aggravation by bias in the subsections of the main provision.
Entered data are stored in a set of electronic registries: the Integrated Regional Police System (IRS); the Automated Information System (AIS) Central Police Register; the AIS Central Police Statistics and the automated systems for filing activities. These systems are organized according to the relevant articles of the criminal code.
The official website of the Ministry of Interior publishes statistical information about registered crimes.
Official Data
National developments
As part of ODIHR's EU-funded project on "Building a Comprehensive Criminal Justice Response to Hate Crimes", the Prosecutor's Office partnered with ODIHR to develop and pilot a manual on delivering joint training events to police officers and prosecutors from the same jurisdiction. Three such pilot training events were delivered and the Manual was launched in June.
Under ODIHR's "Turning Words into Action to Address Anti-Semitism" project, a workshop was organized that brought together police officers, the Jewish Community and other criminal justice and security experts to discuss anti-Semitic hate crimes and measures needed to increase the security of Bulgaria's Jewish community.
International reports
Bias against Roma and Sinti
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The Council of Europe's Ad Hoc Committee Of Experts On Roma And Traveller Issues (CAHROM) published relevant recommendations in its "Thematic Report on Roma and Travellers' Access to Justice (with a gender focus)."
Key observation
ODIHR observes that the law enforcement agencies of Bulgaria have not recorded the bias motivations of hate crimes.
