Today, the Council of Europe launches its socio-legal report on discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

This is the first ever report covering all 47 member states of the Council of Europe on a range of human rights issues that are pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people: attitudes and perceptions towards them, legal standards and their implementation, protection from violence and access to asylum, freedoms of assembly, expression and association, gender recognition and family life, and access to health care, education and employment.

The report clearly demonstrates that LGBT people continue to be subjected to homophobia and transphobia in their everyday lives in all Council of Europe member states and those attitudes are being based on ‘outdated and incorrect information’ about sexual orientation, gender identity and gender .

It also provides a number of recommendations on nonlegislative measures such as state education programmes aiming to increase awareness and understanding of various sexual orientations and gender identities and therefore promote improvement of the social attitudes based on facts and objective information.

“There is considerable resistance among many people, including political leaders, to discuss the full enjoyment of universal human rights by LGBT persons. Even if this may not be a popular human rights topic, the time has now come to take the discussion forward and make it concrete. Converging efforts by the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE and the UN are essential for ensuring the full enjoyment of universal rights by LGBT persons everywhere”, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg.