Bulgaria

Art. 4.

(1) The Republic of Bulgaria shall be a law-governed state. It shall be governed by the Constitution and the laws of the country.

(2) The Republic of Bulgaria shall guarantee the life, dignity and rights of the individual and shall create conditions conducive to the free development of the individual and of civil society.

(3) (new – SG 18/05) The Republic of Bulgaria shall participate in the establishing and the development of the European Union.

Art. 6.

(1) All persons are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

(2) All citizens shall be equal before the law. There shall be no privileges or restriction of rights on the grounds of race, nationality, ethnic self-identity, sex, origin, religion, education, opinion, political affiliation, personal or social status or property status.

Art. 29.

(1) No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or to forcible assimilation.

(2) No one shall be subjected to medical, scientific or other experimentation without his voluntary written consent.

Art. 30.

(1) Everyone shall be entitled to personal freedom and inviolability.

(2) No one shall be detained or subjected to inspection, search or any other infringement of his personal inviolability except on the conditions and in a manner established by law.

(3) The state authorities shall be free to detain a citizen only in the urgent circumstances expressly stipulated by law, and shall immediately advise the judicial authorities accordingly. The judicial authorities shall rule on the legality of a detention within the next 24 hours.

Art. 48.

(1) Citizens shall have the right to work. The state shall take care to provide conditions for the exercising of this right.

(2) The state shall create conditions conducive to the exercising of the right to work by the physically or mentally disabled.

(3) Everyone shall be free to choose an occupation and place of work.

(4) No one shall be compelled to do forced labour.

(5) Workers and employees shall be entitled to healthy and non-hazardous working conditions, to guaranteed minimum pay and remuneration for the actual work performed, and to rest and leave, in accordance with conditions and procedures established by law.

Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria (PDF)

Article 142 Kidnapping and Unlawful Deprivation of Liberty

(1) A person who kidnaps another person in view of unlawfully depriving him/her of liberty shall be punished by deprivation of liberty from one to six years.

(2) The punishment shall be deprivation of liberty from three to ten years if:

1. the perpetrator has been armed;

2. the act has been committed by two or more persons;

3. the kidnapped person has been a pregnant woman or under 18 years of age;

4. the kidnapped person has been entitled to international protection;

5. the act has been perpetrated with regard to two or more persons.

6. the act has been perpetrated by a person engaged in security business, by an employee of an organisation carrying out security and insurance activities, by a person who acts on order of such an organisation or presents himself as acting on such order, by a person on the staff of the Ministry of Interior or a person who presents himself as such;

7. the kidnapping has been carried out with a venal goal in mind or for the purpose of taking the person over the borders of this country;

8. the act has been perpetrated by a person who acts at the orders or in implementing a decision of an organization or a group under art. 321a or of an organized criminal group.

(3) If as the result of the act under paragraphs (1) and (2) considerable harmful consequences have occurred, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for three to twelve years.

(4) If the act has been repeated or the kidnapped person has been treated with particular cruelty, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for five to fifteen years.

Article 142a

 (1) A person who unlawfully deprives another of liberty shall be punished by deprivation of liberty for up to two years.

(2) Where the act has been committed by an official or by a representative of the public, in violation of his duties or functions, or a person under Article 142, paragraph (2), subparagraphs 6 and 8, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for one to six years.

(3) Where the act under the preceding paragraphs has been committed in respect of a pregnant woman, a minor or an underage person, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for three to ten years.

(4) Where the act under the preceding paragraphs has been committed in a manner painful or dangerous to the health of the victim, or where the deprivation of liberty has continued for more than 48 hours, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for three to ten years.

(5) The punishment under the preceding paragraph shall be imposed also on a person who consciously admits to or holds a healthy person at a health establishment for mentally ill persons.

Article 143

(1) A person who compels another to do, to omit or to suffer something contrary to his will, using for that purpose force, threats or abuse of his authority, shall be punished by deprivation of liberty for up to six years.

(2) Where the act has been perpetrated by a person under

Article 142, paragraph (2), subparagraphs 6 and 8, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for three to ten years.

(3) Where in the cases under the preceding paragraph the act of coercion has been committed in respect of a judge, a prosecutor, an examining magistrate, a person on the staff of the Ministry of Interior, a public enforcement agent, a private enforcement agent and an assistant private enforcement agent, as well as on a Customs officer, a tax administration officer, an officer of the National Forestry Directorate, or an officer of the Ministry of Environment and Waters performing a control activity, in the course of or in the event of carrying out his duties or functions, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for two to eight years.

Article 152

(1) A person who has sexual intercourse with a person of the female sex:

1. who is deprived of the possibility of self-defence, and without her consent;

2. by compelling her thereto by force or threat;

3. by reducing her to a state of helplessness shall be punished for rape by deprivation of liberty for two to eight years.

shall be punished for rape by deprivation of liberty for two to eight years.

(2) For rape the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for three to ten years:

1. if the raped woman has not completed eighteen years of age;

2. if she is a relative of descending line;

3. if it was committed for a second time.

(3) For rape the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for three to fifteen years:

1. if it has been performed by two or more persons;
2. if medium bodily injury has been caused;
3. if an attempt at suicide has followed;
4. if it has been committed in view of forceful involvement in further acts of debauchery or prostitution;
5. if it constitutes a case of dangerous recidivism.

(4) The punishment for rape shall be of ten to twenty years, where:

1. the victim has not turned fourteen years of age;
2. severe bodily injury has been caused;
3. suicide has ensued;
4. it qualifies as a particularly serious case.

Article 159a Trafficking of People

 (1) Anyone, who recruits, transports, conceals or admits particular individuals or groups of people with the purpose of using them for debauched activities, forceful labour, dispossession of bodily organs or keeping them in forceful subjection, regardless of their consent, is subjected to penalty of imprisonment for a term from two to eight years and a fine from three to twelve thousand BGN.

(2) When the act under para.1 has been committed:

1. with regard to an individual who is under the age of eighteen years;
2. through the use of force or by misleading the individual;
3. through kidnapping or illegal deprivation of liberty;
4. through making use of a status of dependency;
5. through the abuse of power;
6. through promising, giving or receiving benefits, the punishment is imprisonment for a term from three to ten years and a fine from ten to twenty thousand BGN.

(3) Where the act under Para 1 has been committed in respect to a pregnant woman with the purpose of selling her child, the punishment is imprisonment for a term from three to fifteen years and a fine from twenty to fifty thousand BGN.

Article 159b

 (1) An individual, who recruits, transports, conceals or admits particular individuals or groups of people and takes them over the border of the country with the purpose over art.159a, para.1, is subjected to a penalty of imprisonment for a term from three to twelve years and a fine from ten to twenty thousand BGN.

 (2) If the criminal deed is committed under the conditions of art.159a, para.2 and 3, the penalty is an imprisonment for a term from five to twelve years and a fine from twenty to fifty thousand BGN.

Article 159c

Anyone who uses an individual who is a victim of the traffic with people, for debauched activities, forceful labour, dispossession of bodily organs or with the purpose to be kept in forceful subjection regardless of his/her consent, is subjected to a penalty of imprisonment from three to ten years and a fine from ten to twenty thousand BGN.

Article 159d

In the cases when the activity under art. 159a-159b is qualified as dangerous recidivism or have been committed after an order or in implementation of a decision of an organized criminal group, the penalty is imprisonment for a term from five to fifteen years and a fine from twenty to one hundred thousand BGN, the court may also decree a confiscation of part or the whole property of the doer.

Article 1

(1) This Law shall provide for:

1. The powers and objectives of the state authorities involved in combating trafficking in human beings, as well as the relations between them;
2. The status and objectives of the shelters, centres and commissions established under this Act for protection and support of the victims of human trafficking;
3. The measures to prevent and defy trafficking in human beings;
4. The measures aimed at protecting and supporting the victims of human trafficking, especially women and children;
5. Placing trafficking victims who collaborate with the investigation under special protection.

(2) This Act is intended to ensure co-operation and co-ordination between the bodies of state and the municipalities, as well as between them and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), with a view to preventing and defying trafficking in human beings, and developing the national policy in that area.

Additional provision

• 1. For the purpose of this Act:

1. “Trafficking in human beings” means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, concealment or acceptance of human beings, regardless of their own will, by means of coercion, abduction, deprivation of liberty, fraud, abuse of power, abuse of a state of dependence, or by means of giving, receiving or promising benefits to obtain the consent of a person who has control over another person, when it is carried out for the purpose of exploitation;
2. “Exploitation” means the illegal use of human beings for debauchery, removal of physical organs, forced labour, slavery or servitude;

3. The recruitment, transportation, transfer, concealment or acceptance of children for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered an act of trafficking in human beings, regardless of whether they have been carried out by the means in §1 above.