Commissioner for human rights urges Bulgaria not to adopt anti-LGBTQ+ laws affecting trans children
The proposed bill aims to ban exposing children to content that challenges alternative views of gender and criminalises trans-specific healthcare for minors
By Aaron Sugg
The commissioner for human rights has urged Bulgarian lawmakers not to adopt proposed changes to the Child Protection Act that would ban LGBTQ+ resources in schools threatening trans identity.
The bill under discussion aims to ban exposing children to content that challenges the view of gender strictly as a biological category and criminalises trans-specific healthcare for minors.
Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty wrote to the president of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, Nataliya Kiselova, after the country’s president, Rumen Radev, failed to veto the bill.
“Reinforces stigma and prejudice, is harmful to children” – commissioner for human rights on Bulgarian proposed law
The commissioner warns that the proposed measures could restrict rights to education, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and access to healthcare.
The letter states: “The European Court of Human Rights has held that a legislative ban on the dissemination, among children, of information on LGBTI people reinforces stigma and prejudice, is harmful to children.”
“[It] is ‘incompatible with the notions of equality, pluralism and tolerance inherent in a democratic society,’” he added.
Deeply concerned by the recent law passed by #Bulgaria's Parliament to ban so-called #LGBTI 'progaganda' in schools.
— Commissioner for Human Rights (@CommissionerHR) August 12, 2024
I call on @PresidentOfBg Radev not to sign it.
Authorities should tackle discrimination and hostile rhetoric against LGBTI people incl. in the run-up to elections.
“All measures taken regarding children must be guided, as a primary consideration” – commissioner Michael O’Flaherty on human rights
Regarding the threat to gender identity in Bulgaria, the commissioner explained that gender identity is recognised by the European Court of Human Rights as being protected under human rights law.
He notes that the Court has ruled that denying trans-specific healthcare in certain situations violates these protections.
Warning against the proposed law, the commissioner wrote: “All measures taken regarding children must be guided, as a primary consideration, by the best interests of the child, which shall be determined on a case-by-case basis.”
“Children have the right to be heard” – O’Flaherty on Bulgarian law
He added: “Moreover, children have the right to be heard and have their views given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity in all decisions and actions affecting them, as prescribed by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
The commissioner urged the National Assembly to work with national and international partners, including the Council of Europe, to protect LGBTQ+ rights.