Hate crimes can be considered to be the most severe form of discrimination. In general this means that hate crimes can be based on all the grounds on which discrimination occurs. In Bulgaria hate crimes can be committed only on limited set of grounds pointed out in the Criminal Code. It is important to be well informed about these grounds to properly identify hate crimes.
When a hate crime is committed, the perpetrator has chosen the victim because of certain characteristics possessed by the victim. Bulgarian law considers the offenses to be hate crimes if they were committed because of a bias on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, nationality, religion, political belief, social status (origin), skin colour, membership in trade union or political organization.
If a person becomes a victim due to the person’s racial or ethnic origin or nationality, this can be considered to be a hate crime.
Racial or ethnic origin refers to people who are defined by race, colour (darker or lighter skin), descent, national or ethnic origin. Sometimes this origin may be based on a shared understanding of history, territorial origin (regional or national), particular cultural characteristics such as a language or religion, or a shared sense of belonging to the same community, ethnic majority or minority. Examples of these may be Bulgarian, Turkish, Russian, Jewish or Roma, etc.
Nationality refers to a legal relationship between an individual person and a state. Some people are stateless, which means that the individual has no formal or protective relationship with any state.
example The perpetrators detonated a bomb in an airport because they hate all foreigners that enter the country.
Read more about discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin.
If a person becomes a victim due to the person’s religion or beliefs, this can be considered to be a hate crime. “Religion or belief” means that the person adheres to a particular religion (or not), has a religious background, other (usually philosophical or political) beliefs, or has decided not to adopt a certain religion or beliefs.
example A mosque was attacked during the usual prayers. After the attack, police found anti-Islamic posters in the perpetrator’s flat.
Read more about discrimination based on religion or beliefs.
If a person becomes a victim due to the person’s social status, this can be considered to be a hate crime. ‘Social status’ refers to a person’s social standing in society and the relative level of respect, honour, or assumed competence possessed by the person.
example An unemployed person’s car was damaged, with a note left behind stating that the victim should get a job and stop using the state’s finances.
Political beliefs refer to any kind of political views that a person can have; membership in political organizations refers to any kind of organizations, not strictly political parties.
example A person had been fired because of their membership in certain political party.
A person could become a victim due to a perpetrator’s bias on several grounds simultaneously.
example A Roma Muslim couple was attacked while walking in the park. The perpetrator shouted various slurs directed at the victims’ Roma origin, and their religion, before attacking them.