Bulgarian Draft Denominations Act
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Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 19:53:20 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Bulgarian Draft Denominations Act
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Emil Cohen <[email protected]>
Bulgarian Draft Denominations Act
Tolerance Foundation*
Press Release
Sofia, November 16, 1999
Bulgaria: a draft Denominations Act, which has been prepared by human
rights NGO's, was officially proposed to the National Assembly
A new Draft Denominations Act was officially proposed to the National
Assembly on November 9, 1999 by the MPs Lutfy Mestan, Ahmed Usein,
Unal Lutfy (members of the political party ‘Movement for Rights and
Freedoms’, which is the party of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria) and
Dimitar Ludjev (leader of the liberal party ‘New Choice’). All of
them are members of the opposition parliamentary coalition ‘Union for
National Survival’. This draft was prepared by Mr. Plamen Bogoev,
Executive Director of the Bulgarian Center for Human Rights by request
of Tolerance Foundation. Mr. Bogoev is a distinguished lawyer and
human rights activist. For seven years, he was a legal adviser both to
the former President Dr. Zhelev and the current President Peter
Stoyanov. As it is well known, a month ago the Draft was presented to
the public at a special seminar organized by Tolerance Foundation.
Then the leaders of almost all minority religious communities approved
the Draft and recommended to National Assembly to transform it into
acting Law. (For more details see the Press Release of Tolerance
Foundation dated October 31.)
As it is well known, the acting Denominations Act was created during
1949 i.e. in the beginning of the communist rule in this country.
After democratic changes, different governments used it as a basis for
campaigns that violated seriously the religious human rights of the
citizens. The most popular example is the campaign against so-called
‘sects’ during the period 1993-97.
Now three Draft Denominations Acts are under discussion in the
National Assembly. The National Assembly Human Rights and
Denominations Commission approved them in principle. The Commission
recommended them for first reading by the National Assembly.
Unfortunately, all three are simply weakened versions of the old
communist Denominations Act. All of them restrict the religious human
rights of the citizens in different degrees.
The new, fourth in turn draft is dramatically different from the
others. It reduces the state interference into the internal affairs of
the religious organizations to minimum and provides a very large
number of rights and freedoms for the religious people in this
country. (For the content of the our Draft see above mentioned Press
Release.)
The official introducing of the Draft in the National Assembly is a
result of successful lobbying which Tolerance Foundations and its
partners – Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and Bulgarian Center for Human
Rights – have accomplished among the members of Parliament. It is
possible to find only two or three examples in the entire legislative
history of this country after 1989 when draft laws prepared by human
rights NGOs have been introduced in Parliament.
According to the regulations of the National Assembly, its Human
Rights and Religion Commission have to discuss the new draft. They
have to take a decision for approval or disapproval of the draft. In
accomplishing its plan Tolerance Foundation has already informed the
religion organizations about the proposing the draft and has called on
them to lobby among the MPs in favor of it. In its turn, Tolerance
Foundation is organizing in favor of the draft a public discussion on
all four drafts that will take place on November 18 in the hall of
‘Balkan’ press agency. Several MPs from different parties, members of
Human Rights NGOs, lawyers and journalists will take part in it.
Tolerance Foundation hopes that the international human rights
community will continue to support our efforts for the improvement of
the religious legislation in our country.
For Tolerance Foundation:
Emil Cohen,
President
*Tolerance Foundation is 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 for tolerance towards religious and other
convictions.
The group was founded in 1994. President of the Tolerance Foundation
is Mr. Emil Cohen.
Address: 1000 Sofia, 163A “Rakovsky” St., phone/fax: (+359 2) 981 23
57; phone:(+359 2)9883136
E-mail: [email protected]
--
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