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Bulgaria: A meeting of religious leaders denounces the final version of Draft Denominations Act


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Subject: Bulgaria: A meeting of religious leaders denounces the final version of Draft Denominations Act


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Original sender: Emil Cohen <[email protected]>

Bulgaria: A meeting of religious leaders denounces the final
version of Draft Denominations Act


TOLERANCE FOUNDATION*

PRESS RELEASE

Sofia, November 08, 2000

BULGARIA: A MEETING OF RELIGIOUS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS DENOUNCES
THE FINAL VERSION OF THE DRAFT DENOMINATIONS ACT

In September the final version of the draft Denominations Act,
prepared by the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights and Religions
on the basis of the three previous drafts, became known. On October 12
2000, the text was submitted to Parliament for the second and final
reading.

This was the occasion for the conference, organized by the Tolerance
Foundation in cooperation with Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and
Bulgarian Association for Encouragement and Protection of the
Religious Freedoms on October 20 2000. The topic of the event was the
critical examination of the final version of the Draft. More than 60
representatives of almost all religious organizations took part in the
conference. Mr. Lutfi Mestan and Mr. Ahmed Usein, MPs from the
opposition party of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, the Movement for
Rights and Freedoms (MRF) also attended the conference. The
distinguished expert in the field Prof. W. Cole Durham Jr. from USA,
Ms. Karen Lord, Counsel for Freedom of Religion in USA Helsinki
Commission, and Mr. Lee Boothby, President of the International
Association for Freedom of Conscience, also participated in the
meeting. Mr. Durham and Mr. Boothby made presentations to the
participants.

The conference critically discussed the last version of the draft
Denominations Act. Another draft law called "Law for the Religious
Freedom and the Religious Organizations" was presented to the
participants. That draft was prepared by a team under the leadership
of Mr. Mestan. It was submitted to Parliament on May 26 2000.
Unfortunately, due to troubles created by the ruling majority in the
National Assembly, that draft has not been discussed in the
parliamentary commissions yet.

In their joint report delivered before the conference, Emil Cohen,
President of Tolerance Foundation, and Krassimir Kanev, Chair of the
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, stated that this final version was in
some aspects better than the previous ones, but it reproduced all
their shortcomings. Moreover, they stated, that on the whole the Draft
was worse than the acting Law which was made in the beginning of the
Communist regime. Their general conclusion was that most probably the
Bulgarian draft Denominations Act was worst in all Eastern Europe.

As it is well known, both the spirit and provisions of the previous
drafts were strongly criticized at the meetings of religious and human
rights activists organized by the Tolerance Foundation on July 8 and
October 11 2000. They were also denounced in the Declaration of
nineteen human rights and religious organizations from February 8
2000. However, the great majority of the members of the parliament
have neglected all critical notes of the religious organizations. The
situation can be summarized with the words of Mr. Ahmed Usein to the
participants: "Unfortunately, it is obvious, that both the ruling
majority and the main opposition party do not have the political will
to adopt a real, democratic Denominations Act".

Finally, the conference participants adopted a special Address to the
members of Bulgarian National Assembly. In the Address,
representatives of the biggest minority religious organizations insist
on the MPs to do not allow for passing the Draft Denominations Act.
They call on the Parliament either to change the Draft in radical way
or to prepare new one. (The text of the Address will be sending later.
The Address is still in process of signing.)

*   *    *

In greater detail, the main shortcomings of the draft can be stated as
follows:

 - The draft gives far-reaching rights to the state body that will be
especially created for providing for "the coordination of the State
with the various religious faiths" (i.e. the "Directorate of
Denominations"). This Directorate has a large number of rights. It
gives to the Court opinions for the registration of the religious
organizations. It also has the right to approve the creation of the
schools for the training of all kinds of clergy. It approves the
curricula of these schools. It is provided in the Draft that the
Directorate of Denominations "shall control the activities of the
various faiths with reference to their compliance with their statutes
and the provisions hereof". Moreover, the Directorate "shall
investigate the religious basis and rites of the thus associated
religious faith and shall issue an opinion on the registration of the
same". This investigation should be made because the draft prohibits
the Court from granting a registration to some religious organization
if there is already a registered one with the same religious basis
and/or with the same name. In other words, the splitting of the
already existing religious organizations is prohibited according to
the provisions of the draft. By this provision, the Directorate, a
state authority, takes on itself the role of the judge in the
theological discussions. It is clear that these rights of the
specialized state body to control religious activities are
discriminatory. They are formulated in extremely vague way and thus
these provisions give great possibilities for arbitrariness.

 - The draft creates a large number of preconditions for arbitrariness
also on the local level. It entitles the local authorities to control
the branches of the religious organizations. The mayors have a right
to refuse the registration of the local branches, "if the services and
rites, which the local branch wishes to practice, do not comply with
the Statutes of the registered religious faith". Every local
association which wants to be registered as a local religious
organization has to submit proof that its religious basis and rites
are the same as the ones of some already registered in the capital
institution. These provisions are very high violation of the religious
human rights of the citizens, because they give possibilities for very
large discretion of the mayors to decide whether the local association
is able or not able to exist legally. Without any doubts these
provisions create a situation that is worse than the present situation
under the Communist regime made Denomination Act.

There are also a number of very high problems connected to the
possibilities for the restriction of the right of freedom of the
religion in the draft. In addition to the grounds that are provided in
the international Human Rights Law, Bulgarian draft introduces another
ones. For instance such grounds are "the national security", or "the
using of the denominations for achievement of political aims". These
grounds for restriction are inadmissible, because according to the
Constitution of Bulgaria, the international treaties (in which such
grounds are not provided) that are ratified according to rules of it
are part of the domestic law. Moreover, they have an advantage before
the domestic law. Thus these additional grounds for restriction are in
contradiction to the requirements of the Constitution. There are also
definitions of the restrictions in the draft. They are very unclear
and give possibilities for great violations of the human rights. For
example, some religious institutions can be restricted if it
"endangers the rights and freedoms of the others in case the same
advocates or includes in its practices any activities directed against
the proclaimed and guaranteed by the Constitution and Laws of the
Republic of Bulgaria rights and freedom of its citizens". Thus, the
religious prohibition of abortions, a prescription of many faiths, can
serve as a ground for restriction, because there is no prohibition of
abortions in this country. Some of the definitions are manifestly
ridiculous. For example, a religious institution can be restricted if
it "is a threat to the morals in case the same advocates or includes
in its practices any public activities, which are in deep
non-compliance with the generally accepted rules of ethics for the
current time and place". Thus, every religious faith can be declared a
threat to the "current time and place" because it is no problem for
everyone to find that some statements of some religious system "are in
deep non-compliance with the generally accepted rules of ethics for
the current time and place".

- The draft contains a number of other provisions which can strongly
violate the rights of citizens. One of the heaviest is, for example,
the prohibition for the religious organizations to use public
buildings, if they do not have separate entrances. This provision can
create many troubles for a great number of small religious communities
that do not have their own houses of prayer. They are forced to rent
public buildings for their prayer�s meetings. However, as a rule these
buildings have only one entrance.

Under this situation the Tolerance Foundation believes, that the
international pressure upon Bulgarian politicians is most probably the
only tool for changing in a positive direction the politics of the
Bulgarian State toward the religious rights of the citizens.

On behalf of Tolerance Foundation:

Emil Cohen, President
(Dear readers, please, accept our apologies for the delay in sending
this Press Release on account of personal concerns.)

* The TOLERANCE FOUNDATION is a human rights group monitoring the
freedom of conscience and the religious freedom practices in Bulgaria,
providing legal assistance to victims of discrimination based on
religion, as well as propagating the idea of tolerance towards
religious and other convictions.

The group was founded in 1994. Mr. Emil Cohen is President of the
Tolerance Foundation.

Address: 1000 Sofia, 163A "Rakovsky" St., 
phone/fax: (+359 2) 981 23 57
Phone: (+359 2) 988 31 36
E-mail: [email protected]

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