site.btaExperts Discuss Prejudice, Hate Speech at Sofia Conference

The topic of prejudice and hate speech was on the agenda of the final conference under the EQUALTOGETHER project at the Boyana Residence, aimed at strengthening civil society organizations of vulnerable communities in Bulgaria to counter discrimination, intolerance, segregation, hate speech and hate crimes. The forum was organized by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC).

This is the closing event for the joint project between several Bulgarian and international organizations on hate crimes and hate speech, as well as on the measures that Bulgaria should take to successfully and effectively combat these acts, said Krasimir Kanev, Director of the Monitoring and Research Program at BHC. “Over the course of two years we have made serious studies of the situation in different regions of the country, of Bulgarian legislation and of international standards of protection,” he specified. The result of the studies shows that these topics periodically rise to the surface and their targets are different - at one moment they are Turks, at another - Roma, migrants or LBTI people, according to Kanev. In his words, recommendations have been prepared to Bulgarian institutions - the so-called White Paper and an overview of the issue since the beginning of the democratic changes has been made. “We have already met with some of the representatives of the institutions in the framework of this project,” Kanev added.

In some respects, the Bulgarian state has taken measures to combat prejudice and hate speech, but this has happened after damning rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. There is a long way to go on legislative changes and taking effective measures to combat it, Kanev also said.

In two years, about 140 cases of hate and discrimination have been reported to the Equal.bg platform, which will be added to the existing database of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on hate crimes, the BHC said. The submitted signals are included in the thematic analyses "LGBT - the new media target instead of Roma?", "White Paper: measures with recommendations to combat hate crimes and hate speech" and "Hate crimes and hate speech in Bulgaria", the organization added.

We live in an extremely polarized world and we see what dynamics there are in terms of human rights, Anastasia Baskina from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said during the conference. She highlighted the manifestations of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and others.

Different groups are affected by these problems and in different ways, noted Bertil Cottier, President of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Hate speech is spreading rapidly, he added. And he stressed the role of civil society in tackling these problems. Human rights defenders fight against racism, intolerance and hate speech, the expert said, adding that they receive reports about these problems.

“For us in the European Commission (EC) the main thing is actually the actions for building a union with equality, with thought and care for the human being, assured Yordanka Chobanova, Head of the EC Representation in Bulgaria. Each one of us is important for the example we set in the fight against discrimination, intolerance and hatred,” she said. In the European Union (EU) there is a solid legal basis on this issue, discrimination is prohibited at the highest possible level - founding treaties and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, because we are all born equal and are equal before the law, regardless of our ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, Chobanova explained. A few days ago, the Commission adopted three reports on key strategies to end discrimination, she added.

Hate speech, intolerance, discrimination and hate crimes are in the focus of the institution of the ombudsman of Bulgaria, said Ivan Dechev, a representative for the Ombudsman’s Office. Hate speech and bias crimes are still not sufficiently recognizable as a problem, they are not visible to people and institutions, he said. Proof of this is that among the thousands of complaints to the ombudsman's institution, only a few are those that alert about violated human rights due to such manifestations, Dechev said.

Everyone has the right to love whomever they choose, said Swedish Ambassador here Katarina Rangnitt. No one should be ignored if they seek protection or report a crime based on prejudice, she noted. To address hate crimes, it is obvious that there must be a legislative framework and Swedish legislation is adequate in this aspect, Rangnitt also said.

"Crimes motivated by prejudice are intentional acts that are committed with a specific motive/incentive related to prejudice against a particular characteristic of the victim. They are a form of discrimination - the most severe and the most affecting both the personal integrity of the victim and the system of social relations," says the BHC White Paper. "Unlike hate crimes, hate speech is subject to both formal and informal social control," the paper adds.

The topic of educational desegregation was also discussed at the event. During the breaks, the "Theatre of the Oppressed" initiative was also presented. Actors took on the roles of oppressed people in different situations, and audience members were invited to take a stance on various case studies