In 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with ODIHR and FRA, organized a workshop for police and other criminal justice agencies involved in recording hate crimes. The workshop produced a set of recommendations on improving hate crime registration, which were provided to the Ministry to be conveyed to the Bulgarian authorities for implementation.
A training on the "Investigation of hate crimes on homophobic and transphobic motives", organized by the LGBT youth organization Action, was held as part of a project funded by the American Bar Asssociation. The aim of the project was to increase sensitivity to the problems of the LGBTI community in Bulgaria and to improve the investigation of crimes committed against LGBTI people. Forty-seven officers (including investigative police officers, security police officers and criminal police operatives) from various District Police Directorates in the country were trained.
The Grand Mufti’s Office reported one physical assault resulting in serious injury carried out by a group against a man, leaving him in a coma; 12 cases of the desecration of mosques, including damage to property, and one incident where a pig’s head was placed outside a mosque; and an arson attack.
The European Association of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses / Jehovah’s Witnesses – Bulgaria recorded one physical assault, one threat, one incident of damage to property, and two incidents of the desecration of places of worship, including one where the windows to a church were broken.
World Without Nazism reported two physical assaults in which the victims were stabbed, causing serious injuries; a series of physical assaults against refugees; and a further two incidents of physical assault, including one against a Bulgarian of Turkish background.
World Without Nazism reported one incident of the desecration of a Holocaust memorial.
World Without Nazism reported one incident of the desecration of a mosque.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported the stabbing of a 17-year-old boy from Syria and two assaults causing serious injuries by a group against four asylum seekers. In the first case of assault, two of the victims were from Syria and one from Lebanon, and in the second case, the victim was from Mali.
In its fifth report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommended that the Bulgarian authorities include sexual orientation and gender identity in all the articles of the Criminal Code addressing hate speech and hate crime, and collect data on hate speech and hate crimes against LGBT persons, including on the number of cases reported, investigated and prosecuted.
ODIHR observes that Bulgaria has not reported hate crime data disaggregated by bias motivation to ODIHR.
Throughout the year, the Police Academy continued to train police officers on hate crimes as part of ODIHR’s Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme. In 2013, ODIHR evaluated the implementation of the TAHCLE programme in Bulgaria.
In November 2013, as part of the European Commission’s PROGRESS programme, police officers received training from the Commission for Protection against Discrimination on various issues relating to hate crime prevention and reporting.
Links
[1] https://hatecrime.osce.org/node/295/csv
[2] https://hatecrime.osce.org/ngo/office-grand-mufti-bulgaria
[3] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-muslims
[4] https://hatecrime.osce.org/ngo/jehovahs-witnesses-bulgaria
[5] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-christians-and-members-other-religions
[6] https://hatecrime.osce.org/ngo/world-without-nazism
[7] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/racism-and-xenophobia
[8] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/anti-semitism
[9] https://hatecrime.osce.org/igo/un-high-commissioner-refugees-unhcr
[10] https://hatecrime.osce.org/igo/european-commission-against-racism-and-intolerance-ecri
[11] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-other-groups-sexual-orientation-or-gender-identity