Freedom of Religion Declaration

Declaration of the participants in the “Current Problems of Religious Communities in Bulgaria” Conference held on July 13, 2004 in Sofia
To:
1. President of the Republic of Bulgaria
2. Chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria
3. Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria
4. Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Bulgaria

We, the participants in the “Current Problems of Religious Communities in Bulgaria” Conference held on July 13, 2004 in Sofia, representing religious communities, non-government and social rights organization and citizens, being apprehensive with the attempts of the state to be involved in the internal dynamics of the religious communities and protesting against the tendencies to use the religious problematic for political purposes without taking under considering the numerous protests and objections against the practice of the accepted against our will Confessional Act, in one accord appeal for the applying of the constitutional principles for separation of church and state and for allowing the Bulgarian believers to reach autonomic solutions for the existing problems in their denominations.

We insist for the prosecution of the acts of encroachment on church buildings and the cases of aggression on the pretext of applying the Confessional Act, as well as for the actions purposing the inflaming of religious animosity.

We consider it to be unpredictable and dangerous for society to enforce totalitarian tendencies in the sphere of human rights after fifteen years of democratic changes in Bulgaria and on the verge of the country’s entrance in the family of free European nations.