Bulgaria | HCRW

Bulgaria regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Bulgaria implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme from 2012 until 2017. Bulgaria also took part in ODIHR's project on "Building a Comprehensive Criminal Justice Response to Hate Crime", helping to develop a joint training programme for police and prosecutors that was piloted in the country. Bulgaria has also made efforts to improve hate crime identification, recording and data collection systems through ODIHR's Information Against Hate Crimes Toolkit (INFAHCT) programme. ODIHR completed a review of Bulgaria's hate crime legislation in 2018.

SELECT YEAR

Download the 2018 hate crime report for Bulgaria

OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2023	Not available	12	3
2022	Not available	Not available	Not available
2021	18	384	303
2020	727	353	289
2019	22	432	155
2018	46	6	158
2017	22	9	9
2016	28	299	71
2015	704	752	135
2014	617	750	117
2013	651	300	239
2012	Not available	Not available	Not available
2011	29	41	10
2010	20	34	4
2009	20	22	9

About 2018 Data

The numbers recorded by the police refer to cases registered under substantive offences, many of which are hate speech provisions, and specific penalty enhancements in the Bulgarian Criminal Code. As such, all official numbers include hate crimes committed out of "hooligan motives," which falls outside of the OSCE's hate crime definition. The number of sentencing judgments refers to hate crimes proper.

Hate crime recorded by police

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.

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that the law enforcement agencies of Bulgaria have not recorded the bias motivations of hate crimes.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2018-10	Violent attacks against people	OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights	Show info
2018-03	Violent attacks against people	UNHCR	Show info
2018-03	Violent attacks against people	UNHCR	Show info
2018-10	Violent attacks against people	UNHCR	Show info
2018	Violent attacks against people	Center for Legal Aid - Voice in Bulgaria (CLA)	Show info
2018-09	Violent attacks against people	International Organization for Migration (IOM)	Show info

Anti-Roma hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2018-10	Violent attacks against people	OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights	Show info
2018-05	Violent attacks against people	OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights	Show info

Anti-Muslim hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2018-09	Attacks against property	Office of Grand Mufti in Bulgaria	Show info
2018-07	Attacks against property	Office of Grand Mufti in Bulgaria SETA	Show info
2018-09	Attacks against property	SETA	Show info
2018-05	Violent attacks against people	OSCE Office for Democratic Institution and Human Rights	Show info

Anti-Christian hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2018-09	Violent attacks against people	OIDAC	Show info
2018-07	Violent attacks against people	Jehovah's Witnesses	Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Anti-Roma hate crime

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)."