The adoption of the European Union’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2013, by the European Parliament on March 12th 2015, acts as a significant moment for human rights internationally. The report candidly calls for Lithuanian legislators to follow Moldova’s footsteps in annulling any and all laws prohibiting the propagation of “non-heterosexual” relationships or “non-normative” family structures.
The report, authored by Pier Antonio Panzeri, provides insights and detailed descriptions of EU achievements, as well as providing a strategic framework for guiding future work and pointing to fields where urgent progress is needed. One such field is that of LGBT* rights.
390 Members of the European Parliament voted in favour of the report which explicitly condemns the criminalization of LGBT* people and the recent increase in discriminatory laws impacting their fundamental rights. The report encourages EU institutions to raise LGBT* rights issues with third countries and support LGBT* groups with EU financial instruments.
Importantly, the report also calls for the depathologization of trans* identities and for the outlawing of sterilization as a requirement for legal gender recognition. Members of the European Parliament also called on the EU and its Member States to support civil society and to defend its important role in monitoring and condemning all restrictions on freedom of assembly and association, including bans on civil society organizations.
The national LGBT* rights organization LGL wishes to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the Members of Parliament who voted in favour of adopting this Report, and in affirming their strong support for LGBT* rights.
