
Here is a brief highlight of 2021:
At the beginning of January, together with March for the Family National Association, we sent an opinion with recommendations to the National Assembly regarding the proposed changes in the Child Protection Act.
Later, we sent an opinion on the draft National Health Strategy, which envisages the introduction of systematic health and sexual education in kindergartens and schools, given the data on its consequences so far, in more than 100 large-scale studies over the past 30 years.

In April, we took action to protect freedom of expression, opposing action by the European Commission to include "hate speech" and "hate crimes" for which there are no clear and generally accepted definitions in the list of serious EU crimes, such as terrorism and human trafficking.
At the end of the same month, we sent an opinion to the European Commission (EC) in defense of the national competence of the member states in the fight against violence. It is in response to the Commission's action for a directive to introduce a gender and gender identity other than biological, which creates legal uncertainty and unpredictability of the consequences of the rule of law and weakens national protection for women.
In May, we participated with a position in the EC's public consultations on the drafting of a directive on violence against women and with a contribution on the preparation of a directive on the recognition of same-sex unions and adoptions in the EU. In the letters we pointed out the consequences of such policies on children and society.
We participated in a joint letter, among others, to UNICEF regarding their erroneous allegations about the impact of pornography on children, which signaled that the document had been corrected.
We organized an online meeting with Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, a world-renowned author and speaker on family relationships and parenting.

In June, we launched the "Vote for the Family" initiative for family-promoting policies in connection with the forthcoming parliamentary elections, in order to see and acquaint the public with the candidates for MPs who are publicly committed to promoting and protecting human dignity and freedom, marriage and the family. More than 125 parliamentary candidates from a total of six political formations backed the declaration on family-promoting policies in the next parliament.

In August, we sent a statement in defense of freedom of speech to the Council of Europe on the draft recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to combat "hate speech".
At the end of the month, we briefed the media on the report of the European Center for Law and Justice, based on a large-scale study that highlighted the financial ties of a number of UN Human Rights Council experts to foundations and private organizations.
In September, we sent letters to Bulgarian MEPs regarding a resolution aimed at drafting a mandatory directive on gender-based violence by the EC.
In October, we launched an open letter-petition to the government, requesting compliance with our Constitution, on the occasion of the EU directive on gender-based violence and its inclusion as a new area of crime in the EU, which in January 2022 will be proposed to the Council of the EU. You can support the petition at: https://civilactionbg.com/stop-eu-gender-directive/

At the beginning of December, we informed the media about the positive changes in the ECHR as a result of the report highlighting the conflict of interest in court and the actions taken.
We sent a letter to our MEPs, the parties represented in parliament in the National Assembly and the media, in connection with erroneous allegations about the Istanbul Convention in the media.
In the middle of the month, we submitted a petition, supported by more than 2,380 people and 36 organizations, in connection with the European Commission's gender directive, which aims to circumvent the provisions of the Istanbul Convention.
During the year we participated in many meetings, events, TV and radio shows related to marriage, family, children's and parents' rights, freedom of speech. We prepared articles, translated materials, informed the media about important developments, incl. and the consequences of policies against children, women, the family, freedom of expression, etc. We reached out and informed thousands of our supporters several times a month through our newsletter.

During the Marriage Week we had a talk with students, at the invitation of one of the capital's universities. The initiative was widely covered in the media, where we had the opportunity to share about the benefits of healthy marriages and families, for the partners, the children and the society and how we could promote them. More about the events from February 7 to 14, 2022 and how you could get involved, see www.brak.bg.
In order to be able to actively participate in our campaigns and petitions in defense of children and your family, we encourage you to take a minute to subscribe to our free e-newsletter in Bulgarian from the button below.
We look forward to hearing from you! Write to us at: sva@sva.bg
The team of the Society and Values Association