Bulgaria

Bulgaria Adopts Comprehensive Anti-DiscriminatioN Law

 
The Bulgarian Parliament last month adopted a comprehensive anti-discrimination Law. This law bans discrimination on a number of grounds, including race, gender, religion, disability, age, and sexual orientation.

The law provides that in prima facie cases of discrimination, the respondent has the burden of proving that discrimination did not occur. The law establishes an anti-discrimination Commission with specialised subcommittees for racial and gender discrimination. The Commission will consist of 9 members, 5 elected by Parliament and 4 appointed by the President, and will have the power to receive and investigate complaints and issue binding rulings, as well as to impose significant sanctions on perpetrators. The law includes provisions such that more than one victim can join a complaint in cases where the discriminatory abuse harms groups of people.

The law also fulfils prior obligations freely adopted by the Bulgarian government in the Framework Programme for the Equal Integration of Roma into Bulgarian Society. The law consolidates Bulgarian anti-discrimination law to date scattered among various domestic legal provisions and for the most part ineffective  into a single comprehensive act, thus improving the chances for real and comprehensive enforceability in practice.