ILGA-Europe in cooperation with the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights, launched a Shadow Directive on Equal Treatment of Persons Irrespective of Sexual Orientation which aims at extending protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation to areas outside employment such as social protection, social benefits, education, provisions of goods and services, and housing.
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The Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights and the Trade Unions Intergroup formally launched a written declaration on combating homophobic bullying in response to a report published by ILGA-Europe and IGLYO highlighting that over half of LGBT young people experience bullying in schools and other spheres of life. In a previous meeting launching the report,
Sometime ago members of Lithuanian Parliament were asked to state their opinions regarding harsh position of Lithuanian Catholic church hierarchy – “homosexuality is a perversion”. Read about it in new website section “Lithuanian MPs about homosexuality”.
2007 has been proclaimed the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. One of the first political accomplishments of the year has been the unfortunate creation of a new European-level political group entitled Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS). Ironically, this was made possible through the accession of newest EU Member States Bulgaria and Romania. It is
NGOs from around the world welcomed a landmark statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, delivered at the United Nations Human Rights Council by Norway on behalf of 54 States. The statement condemns human rights violations directed against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, commends the work of UN mechanisms and
The European Parliament’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights launched its new website in a meeting organised during the November Strasbourg session of the European Parliament. After having closed the website for several weeks, the Intergroup’s website features a refreshed design, improved functions to help raise awareness and ease of communication. A fuller brief of
The Lithuanian Gay League was angered by the initiative put forward in the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) to treat information related to the propagation of homosexual relations as having a negative impact on the physical, mental and moral development of minors. The leaders of this organization maintain that such a provision would be equivalent to discrimination
ILGA-Europe welcomes this long-awaited decision and thanks the Latvian politicians who supported this amendment and stood against prejudice and discrimination. However, ILGA-Europe remains concerned that it took Latvia such a long and bitter battle to implement this legislation despite the country’s obligation as EU member state to implement EU directives. During the parliamentary debate, some
The Law Society has published its first report on the career experiences of gay and lesbian solicitors. The report focuses on the factors determining whether a gay or lesbian solicitor would be open about their sexuality in their workplace. Most participants acknowledged that they were reluctant to come out at work for fear that it
In the spirit of the two declarations adopted during the previous Workers Out Conferences held in Amsterdam in 1998 and in Sydney in 2002 as well as the one carried at the International LGBT Forum of EI-PSI in 2004 and the goals that were determined at the time, the delegates to the third “Workers Out!”
The Employment Equality Directive requires EU Member States to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in the field of employment. This book is the first to assess to what degree the Directive’s requirements have been met by the twenty-five Member States and by Bulgaria and Romania. The authors discuss the relevant aspects of EU law and provide
Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to be able to take part in these first world “Outgames”, at least as a speaker, for I think that events like this help to raise the profile of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities across the world through sport. Please allow me to begin my speech with