I have many years of experience and proven expertise in LGBTI cases, especially with regard to recognition of marriages concluded abroad, recognition of birth certificates of children of same-sex couples born abroad, and overall protection of LGBTI rights. The LGBTI community in Bulgaria is especially my focus, because Bulgaria lacks laws and procedural regulations for recognizing and protecting same-sex partnerships. It does not provide protections in cases of bias motivated crimes based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity of the victims. 

The most recent case that I have been working on is the case of Baby Sara. It concerns the issuance of a Bulgarian birth certificate and citizenship to a child born into a same-sex family, which is heard by the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice (CJEU). On 14 December 2021, the CJEU issued a ruling on a request for a preliminary ruling by the Administrative Court Sofia City (ACSC). According to the CJEU judgment, once a child’s parentage is established in an EU Member State, it should be recognized throughout the EU, regardless of the parents’ sex or national law. The judgment came as a result of the lawsuit filed by the family of the victim with my legal assistance due to the refusal of Sofia Municipality to issue a birth certificate for the two-years old Sara. Sara, who lives in Spain with her two mothers, one of whom is Bulgarian, still lacks documents. The ACSC will have to implement the judgment of the CJEU, obliging the Bulgarian administration to issue identity documents for the child so that Sara can exercise her right to move freely in the EU as a European citizen.

Human rights is seen as something shameful in Bulgaria. Political leaders still refuse to make a statement on human rights, let alone LGBTI rights. In general, the society is very conservative, and the widely spread corruption coupled with poverty among people brings down a total understanding of why human rights are important. Therefore, it is difficult to work in such an environment. Indeed, there are not many human rights defenders, and human rights lawyers are even fewer. Bulgaria is also one of the most homophobic and transphobic places in the European Union. In 2004, the Bulgarian Parliament voted the Act against Discrimination, which included sexual orientation as a ground, in order to meet the requirements for European Union’s accession. 16 years later, not only are there no positive developments in the legislation, but the attitudes towards the LGBTI community are also getting worst. Since 2017, there is a clear deterioration of the social and political climate in Bulgaria. Attacks against LGBTI people have also become more frequent. The legal program of Deystvie reports a hike in the attack rates and cases of discrimination by 2019. In a period of a couple of months, the only LGBTI center in the country the “Rainbow Hub” was vandalized 4 times. It shows that perpetrators feel empowered by the political narrative against disadvantaged groups.

In mid-January 2020, LGBT Deystive became under police investigation, as the extreme conservative circles have signaled to the prosecutor’s office that the campaigns for rights of same-sex partners undermine the constitutional order of Bulgaria. Indeed, the political party, “Revival”, a far right party, together with an evangelistic NGO “National Group – Parents United for Children” submitted a motion to the prosecutor's office against LGBT Deystvie for a crime under Article 108 of the Bulgarian Penal Code.

Article 108 states that “Anyone who preaches fascist or other anti-democratic ideology or forcibly alters the social and state order established by the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or a fine of up to five thousand Levа”. The reason for this motion was a protest organized by LGBT Deystvie in front of the parliament  against the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court that published a refusal to recognize the marriage between Lili and Darina concluded in the UK. During the protest, LGBT Deystvie announced the start of the campaign “Family for All”. In this connection, two police officers visited LGBT Deystvie and asked Ms. Veneta Limberova, Chairperson of LGBT Deystvie, to testify on what happened at the protest and what the aim of the campaign was. This information was requested, although the protest was conducted in agreement with the Sofia Municipality, and guarded by the police. We believe that both our litigation and advocacy work regarding the campaign “Family for All” were in the core of the police investigation. Fortunately, the prosecutor’s office did not proceed with the investigation against LGBT Deystvie.