KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK ______________________________________ KESTON NEWS SERVICE, 11.00, 17 December 2002. Reporting on violations of religious liberty and on religion in communist and post-communist lands. ______________________________________ I. BULGARIA: MINORITIES OBJECT TO RELIGION BILL Religious minority leaders and human rights activists have protested about provisions of the new religion bill which many fear will be adopted this week. The Committee on Human Rights and Religions submitted the bill to the National Assembly on 4 December and the final reading began in parliament on 14 December. Consideration is due to resume on 18 December. "We are not satisfied with this draft law. Some provisions are not democratic," Pastor Theodor Angelov, a Sofia-based pastor who heads the European Baptist Federation, told Keston. "As a member of the Hare Krishna community, I can see discrimination in the bill between the Orthodox Patriarchate and other faiths," Asen Genov (Radha-Vinoda Dasa) told Keston. "This is a Christmas present to the Patriarchate." He said many other minority faiths share their negative view of the bill. "There has been no discussion with religious communities," he complained. II. BULGARIA: RELIGION BILL FAVOURS ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE Although religious minorities and human rights activists are happy with some provisions of the new religion bill which began its final reading in the Bulgarian parliament on 14 December (see separate KNS article), they are highly concerned about provisions which they believe grant the Orthodox Patriarchate a position of primacy and penalties for new religious offences. Some complain about what they regard as poor phrasing which leaves many provisions subject to interpretation by local officials. "I can't tell you how local officials will implement this law," Pastor Theodor Angelov, a Sofiabased pastor who heads the European Baptist Federation, told Keston. Emil Cohen, president of the Tolerance Foundation, agreed. "A lot of the provisions of the draft are too vague and can be interpreted in different ways." I. BULGARIA: MINORITIES OBJECT TO RELIGION BILL by Felix Corley, Keston News Service Religious minority leaders and human rights activists have protested about provisions of the new religion bill which many fear will be adopted this week. The Committee on Human Rights and Religions submitted the bill to the National Assembly on 4 December and the final reading began in parliament on 14 December. Consideration was due to resume on 15 December, but some Christian communities objected to holding the debates on a Sunday and further consideration was postponed until 18 December. "We are not satisfied with this draft law. Some provisions are not democratic," Pastor Theodor Angelov, a Sofia-based pastor who heads the European Baptist Federation,told Keston News Service on 16 December. "As a member of the Hare Krishna community, I can see discrimination in the bill between the Orthodox Patriarchate and other faiths," Asen Genov (RadhaVinoda Dasa) told Keston from Sofia the same day. "This is a Christmas present to the Patriarchate." He said many other minority faiths share their negative view of the bill. "There has been no discussion with religious communities," he complained. If adopted, the law would require minority religions to obtain court approval to operate in the country. The proposed law also would establish the Orthodox Church as Bulgaria's traditional faith and would in practice deny recognition to breakaway Orthodox clergy opposed to Patriarch Maksim, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate (see separate KNS article). On 14 and 15 December, two demonstrations against the proposed new law were held outside parliament in central Sofia. In a remarkable show if unity, the demonstrations were led by the Orthodox Synod loyal to Metropolitan Innokenti of Sofia (who is part of the breakaway Orthodox Church that does not recognise the authority of the Patriarchate), but were joined by Protestants and members of other faiths. The Sofia paper Standard reported on 16 December that some 10 priests and 40 laypeople of the Orthodox Synod took part in the 15 December protest. However, the Tolerance Foundation - a Sofia-based religious freedom group - said each demonstration attracted about a thousand participants from many faiths. At the 15 December demonstration the Synodal Orthodox complained that the bill would favour only the Patriarchate and enable it to take possession of all Orthodox property in the country, including the churches they still occupy. They said that they were determined to fight to the death if necessary and would soon convene a council which would decide how their property would be defended. Parliamentary deputy Ivan Ivanov told the demonstrators that some provisions of the law contradicted other laws and if adopted - the Constitutional court would be asked to repeal it. Also expressing concern was a senior cleric of the Eastern- rite Catholic diocese of Sofia. "This law will alter the status of all religious communities," Father Blagovest Vanghelov, vicar general of the diocese, told Catholic News Service on 12 December. "We all have virtually the same objections Catholics, Protestants and Muslims - and have made our views clear in a series of petitions." The call for religious communities to be allowed to voice their concerns about the bill before parliament adopts it was backed by the working group on the religion bill formed by the Sofia-based Rule of Law Institute. A 3 December statement signed by Lachezar Popov, the Institute's chair, declared that "it would be best to submit it to the officially registered Denominations for comments and proposals". Religious groups represented at a 25 November meeting of the working group had already proposed such a move. The process of adopting a new religion law has been long drawn out. In May parliament adopted three widely different drafts in the first reading. A special working group was then created within the framework of the Commission on Human Rights and Religion. Emil Cohen, president of the Tolerance Foundation, reported on 16 December that about two weeks ago a ruling party deputy Borislav Tsekov "insulted" experts provided by religious organisations, provoking their departure. After months of slow progress, he reports, the draft was completed "within two or three days" and sent to parliament. "The Commission has denied its previous decision to send the draft to the Council of Europe for review," he complained. "This bill should be sent to the Council of Europe for expert analysis," Genov added, in views widely shared by religious communities. "The previous draft was severely criticised by the Council of Europe maybe that is why they don't want to send them this draft." A seminar organised by the European Centre on Jurisprudence in Sofia on 13 December and attended by more than forty religious representatives called on the National Assembly to halt the adoption of the bill and to send it to the Council of Europe for review. The Chief Mufti stated that the Muslim community would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights because of the preference the bill gives to the Orthodox Church. An appeal to President Georgi Parvanov to veto the future law has been signed by all Protestant Churches, by one of the wings of the Orthodox Church as well as by many other religious and human rights organisations. Pastor Angelov believes the law still bears the imprint of the Communist past. "Officials believe religious activities are something dangerous that should be controlled," he told Keston. "This is the thinking behind this law - and it is this thinking that makes me afraid." (END) II. BULGARIA: RELIGION BILL FAVOURS ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE by Felix Corley, Keston News Service Although religious minorities and human rights activists are happy with some provisions of the new religion bill which began its final reading in the Bulgarian parliament on 14 December (see separate KNS article), they are highly concerned about provisions which they believe grant the Orthodox Patriarchate a position of primacy and penalties for new religious offences. Some complain about what they regard as poor phrasing which leaves many provisions subject to interpretation by local officials. "I can't tell you how local officials will implement this law," Pastor Theodor Angelov, a Sofia-based pastor who heads the European Baptist Federation, told Keston News Service on 16 December. Emil Cohen, president of the Tolerance Foundation, agreed. "A lot of the provisions of the draft are too vague and can be interpreted in different ways." Pastor Angelov was particularly concerned that the bill does not make clear whether registration is compulsory before any religious activity is legal, or whether registration is only required if believers wish to have legal status. "Religious communities will need registration to exist and function, but I can't say if registration is compulsory. This is not clear." He believed life would become very difficult for newer religious groups without registration. Cohen was also concerned. "In essence the practice of religion remains dependent on the availability of registration of the religion group," he declared. "It is not allowed for a religious group to be registered as a not-for-profit organisation. In essence according to the draft only registered organisations can develop any kind of religious activity." All religious minorities have objected to Article 11, which declares: "The traditional religion in the Republic of Bulgaria is the Eastern Orthodox." It also grants the Orthodox Patriarchate legal recognition, while all other faiths need to obtain registration through Sofia city court or local courts. Although the Article specifies that the Orthodox Patriarchate can have no greater rights than other faiths, many are unconvinced. "The Orthodox Patriarchate will be superior not equal to other faiths - this bothers us very much," Pastor Angelov declared. "The provision proposed establishes the privileged position of a denomination traditional for the country," the Sofia-based Rule of Law Institute complained in a wide-ranging analysis on 3 December. "In order to preserve the principle of legal equality of the various denominations, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church should be subject to the common legal order irrespective of the fact that it is the most popular denomination." Particularly objecting to this article is the rival Orthodox Synod, which has broken away from the Patriarchate. "Through the Law it becomes very clear that only one Orthodox Church has to exist in our country and it is a wing of Patriarch Maksim," Cohen declared. "By this, a step toward establishing of the State Orthodox Church has been made. Thus the rights of many Bulgarian Orthodox believers who have chosen to be followers of the alternative Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church would be very seriously violated." The Tolerance Foundation complains about the rights given to the courts under Article 9 of the bill to punish religious organisations for a variety of alleged offences by banning their activities for up to six months, banning the publication or distribution of religious publications or cancelling an organisation's registration. "It is clear from that list that the offences committed by religious organisations will not be treated as all others: a special regime of sanctions on religious groups has been created. Beside this there are not definitions of the offences that can provoke these sanctions. By that way a large room for subjective interpretations is opened." The Foundation believes that such blanket punishments could restrict individuals' inherent rights that should not be subject to such limitations. Pastor Angelov objected particularly to the punishments for religious activity prescribed in the bill, with fines of up to 5,000 leva (2,620 US dollars, 2540 Euros or 1640 British pounds). "This is a lot of money." Article 38 declares: "(1) Any person carrying out religious activity in the name of a religion without representational authority is penalized with a fine from 100 leva to 300 leva. (2) When the above mentioned act is repeated, the fee is 500 leva to 1000 leva." Pastor Angelov is concerned that this might be interpreted by local religious officials to punish any individual member of a religious community who conducts any public religious activity without specific authorisation from the headquarters of that organisation. "Who know, maybe they'll give us an additional interpretation of that article." Cohen reported that the experts attending the seminar on the religion bill organised by the European Centre on Jurisprudence in Sofia on 13 December believed the bill needed more work to bring it into line with international standards. "The conclusion of the experts was that the Draft was not in consistence with the OSCE commitments also with the requirements of the European Convention of Human Rights," he declared. Pastor Angelov says implementation of the new law is another area of concern. "The most important thing is how it will be implemented." He points out that local officials have already implemented local regulations restricting religious activity and he fears they could implement new restrictions claiming to be derived from the new law. (END) Copyright (c) 2002 Keston Institute. All rights reserved. Subscribe to the free weekly KNS Summary, or to the almost daily Keston News Service, through our website http://www.keston.org/. 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