About us

Bulgarian Diversity Charter is a joint initiative of the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum aimed to promote diversity management in Bulgaria..

Diversity is a core value of the European Union. Companies and organisations that recognise and value diversity as a business strategy by putting people first, regardless of their gender, race, age, religion, sexual preferences or physical disability, have an advantage in a competitive market. The EU aims to promote diversity in the workplace to boost competitiveness and to promote equality and the wellbeing of its citizens.

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The concept of diversity refers to the many different types of people who make up a company. Each individual is unique in their specific features but at the same time they also share certain things in common with other individuals. More generally, the concept of diversity refers to the tolerance, respect and consideration that a company demonstrates in relation to each person’s particular characteristics.

In the field of employment, a diversity policy is designed to better reflect the diversity of the national population in a company’s workforce and to make the best use of the specific characteristics and potential of each person. A coherent diversity policy will generate an inclusive environment and allow all employees to feel well-integrated, respected and valued. This means implementing a policy for managing human resources that centers on recognizing and giving value to individual skills rather than on sub-optimal criteria, also called grounds for discrimination or protected grounds. The EU non-discrimination directives identify six protected grounds, meaning six individual characteristics upon which differential treatment should not be based: gender; sexual orientation; disability; age; religion or belief; racial or ethnic origin.

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Practical guide to launch and implement a Diversity Charter

European Commission, 2015

Diversity Charter is a document that is voluntarily signed by a company or a public institution committing to undertake steps to implement policies on diversity and equal opportunities to people regardless of gender, race, age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, etc.

On this website, you can learn more about diversity management in Bulgaria and the EU, get updates about new developments in the area of equality and non-discrimination at the workplace and apply for membership in the Bulgarian Diversity Charter.

Founders

DIVERSE.BG was launched as a joint initiative of the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum.

The CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRACY (CSD) is a European public policy institute dedicated to the values of democracy and market economy. Founded in late 1989, CSD is a non-partisan, independent organization fostering the reform process through impact on policy and civil society. CSD seeks to provide an enhanced institutional and policy capacity for a successful European integration process, especially in the area of justice and home affairs; to promote institutional reform and the practical implementation of democratic values in legal and economic practice; and to monitor public attitudes and serve as a watchdog of the institutional reform process. Building bridges is the old-fashioned way of bringing together social actors and cementing new alliances. Born as a think-tank, the Center for the Study of Democracy has evolved into policy development through dialogue and partnership.

The Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum (BBLF) is the leading organization in Bulgaria devoted to promoting the principles and values of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by leveraging resources, fostering partnerships, and maximising impact. BBLF is a membership association with a large number of member companies. The Forum is affiliated to the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF). It is BBLF’s utmost goal to: promote socially responsible business practices that benefit business and society; develop projects and programmes to show how business, government and civil society work together and can successfully tackle a wide range of local issues; help leverage resources to bring partnership projects to scale and maximise impact; share ideas, information and experience of socially responsible business practice and partnership action at local and international levels to encourage replication; build leadership and management skills in these areas.

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This website was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).

The content of this website represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.