Register here to join us at 12:00 CEST (noon), Wednesday, June 12 for a Skills Boost session designed for LGBTI activists who want to learn more about digital ads and how to use them more strategically. We have invited a digital marketing expert who specialises in nonprofits and activism, to cover:

• Various channels for paid digital ads – what are their strengths and weaknesses and how to decide where to go.  
• Focus on Meta ads (Facebook & Instagram): how they work, and how to get the best out of them.  
• The best low-budget campaigns. What to do and where to start.  
• What are the zero budget options? 
• What to do if your ads are constantly rejected (for example for being ‘political’).

At the end of the first session, the participants will receive an assignment. Everyone who completes the assignment will get individual feedback at the second session, on June 26 at 12:00 CEST. 

• Register here to join the session on June 12th (the session lasts 90 minutes): https://ilga-europe-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrceqvqzkoHNUZKqCt-u4FqQq2wVopk0fr 
• Register here to join the session on June 26th (the session lasts 90 minutes): https://ilga-europe-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkdO6pqzsvG9NfbWZ1Osans_oxHAxQakUD  

ILGA-Europe, The International Commission of Jurists and the organisation Intersex International Europe jointly file a third-party intervention before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in a case concerning the South African athlete Caster Semenya

In July 2023, in its judgment in the case of Semenya v. Switzerland, the Chamber of the third section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had ruled in favour of Caster Semenya, a South African Olympic runner, finding that Switzerland had violated her right to freedom from discrimination, taken together with her rights to respect for private life and to an effective remedy had been violated.

The case had arisen from a complaint brought to the Strasbourg Court against witzerland by Caster Semenya, a South African international-level athlete specializing in middle-distance races (800 to 3000 metres).  She had refused to comply with the “Eligibility Regulations for the Female Classification (Athletes with Differences of Sex Development – the DSD Regulations)” of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now World Athletics), requiring her to reduce her natural testosterone level through hormone treatment in order to be allowed to participate in international competitions in the women’s category, since the side-effects of such treatment were not well understood.  Her failure to comply with the DSD Regulations resulted in her being barred from participation in international competitions.

Notwithstanding the July 2023 ECtHR judgment, Semenya and many other women athletes continue to be banned from competing in sports under World Athletics regulations. Later that year, the Swiss government filed a referral request to the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR for a final ruling on Semenya’s case.  A hearing in the case will take place in Strasbourg on 15 May 2024.

Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, Director of ICJ’s Africa Programme, said, “The Grand Chamber of the ECtHR will have the opportunity to consider Semenya’s complaint of human rights violations and the broader question of discrimination against athletes with hyperandrogenism, a condition characterized by higher than usual levels of testosterone, a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength. Under World Athletics regulations women like Semenya, who have naturally occurring higher testosterone levels associated with Differences of Sex Development (DSD), are barred from competing – unless they subject themselves to medically unnecessary interventions to reduce their testosterone levels and conform to an arbitrary and subjective standard of femininity.”

Organisation Intersex International Europe (OII Europe), ILGA-Europe (the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) filed a joint submission before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights to assist the Grand Chamber in its determination of the case. The joint submission focuses on the place of intersex athletes in competitive sports and sporting fairness for all athletes. The submission analyses World Athletics’ constantly evolving rules, which – due to their strict prerequisites – effectively limit and/or prevent the participation of intersex athletes in international sporting competitions.  Even though new regulations were issued in 2021 and again in 2023, the submission deals in chief with the 2018 regulations as these are the ones being contested before the Court.

The submission focuses on the following issues:

•          The DSD Regulations discriminate against intersex athletes on the grounds of sex within the meaning of Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), as well as on the grounds of sex characteristics – in particular, genetic characteristics – which, in turn, fall within the protective scope of the same provision. The joint interveners have provided the Grand Chamber with a comparison between the 10 December 2021 Regulations, 31 March 2023 Regulations, and the 2018 Regulations to show that World Athletics is continually restricting access to sport for intersex and other athletes without “particularly weighty and convincing reasons” by way of justification. 

•          The 2018 DSD Regulations were less restrictive than the subsequently issued rules as they only limited participation in the following races: 400m races; 400m hurdles races; 800m races; 1500m races; one-mile races; and all other Track Events over distances between 400m and one mile, whether run alone or as part of a relay event or a Combined Event. The 2018 Regulations were nevertheless discriminatory to intersex athletes.

•          The submission expands on the wider detrimental effect of the DSD Regulations on the human rights of youth, children and intersex athletes.

•          The submission makes brief remarks on the right of access to justice and the right to an effective remedy under international law and standards, including Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Dan Christian Ghattas, Executive Director of OII Europe, said, “The submission sets out that the 2018 DSD Regulations fall foul on sex characteristics as a ground for discrimination without ‘particularly weighty and convincing reasons’ by way of justification and, as a result, impermissibly discriminate against intersex athletes under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In particular, the joint submission underscores the significance of the findings in the Chamber judgment establishing sex characteristics as a prohibited ground under Article 14 of the Convention.” 

According to Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director at ILGA-Europe, “Despite claims from the World Athletics that the DSD Regulations will not prevent any women from competing in athletics, they have the effect of forcing some women with variations of sex characteristics to choose between undergoing medically unnecessary interventions to lower their testosterone levels or be precluded from participating in international sport. This is yet another example of discrimination faced by intersex athletes who are exposed to invasive medical examinations and interventions that have a dramatic impact on their ability to participate in competitions, and which may have life-long physical and psychological consequences.”

Background to the case

The 2019 regulations are the ones that are in question in the case, despite regulations also being issued in 2021 and 2023. Sports governing bodies argued that the 2019 regulations broke from the past 50 years of sex testing women athletes, a practice that was humiliating, degrading and discriminatory. However, the revised 2019 regulations still subjected women athletes to sex eligibility criteria that retain these negative, rights-abusing consequences.

Semenya unsuccessfully challenged the 2018 regulations in the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Lausanne in April 2019. She then appealed to Switzerland’s highest court, the Federal Tribunal, which dismissed the case on grounds that sports regulations violating women’s rights cannot be struck down as inconsistent with Swiss public policy. They added that the DSD regulations were an appropriate, necessary, and proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aims of fairness in sport.

In its July 2023 judgment, the third section of the ECtHR found that Semenya had not been afforded sufficient institutional and procedural safeguards in Switzerland to allow her to have her complaints examined effectively, especially since her complaints concerned substantiated and credible claims of discrimination as a result of her increased testosterone level caused by differences of sex development (DSD). It followed, particularly with regard to the high personal stakes involved for Semenya – namely, participating in athletics competitions at the international level, and therefore practising her profession – that Switzerland had overstepped the narrow margin of appreciation afforded to it in the present case, which concerned discrimination on the grounds of sex and sexual characteristics requiring “very weighty reasons” by way of justification. The high stakes of the case for Semenya and the narrow margin of appreciation afforded to Switzerland should have led to a thorough institutional and procedural review, but Semenya had not been able to obtain such a review. The Court also found that the domestic remedies available to the applicant could not be considered effective in the circumstances of the case.

The 2018 DSD Regulations require a blood testosterone level below five nmol/L for a continuous period of at least six months. The 2023 DSD Regulations, in turn, impose an even lower threshold with respect to the concentration of testosterone in the serum of relevant athletes, namely, below two point five nmo/L. In comparison with the 2018 DSD Regulations, the 2023 DSD Regulations betray an even more misogynistic nature and are a fortiori discriminatory to athletes with variations of sex characteristics. Moreover, the 2023 DSD Regulations’ restricted testosterone level does not just affect intersex persons, but also endosex (i.e., non-intersex) women in general.

In November 2023, Switzerland successfully requested a referral of the case to the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR on the grounds inter alia that Switzerland lacked jurisdiction; that the case did not involve the application of Swiss law; that the Chamber’s ruling would require a fairly fundamental review of the system of judicial review of international arbitral awards requiring alignment with the judicial review of judgments handed down by national courts and this would run counter to the aims of international arbitration and would significantly reduce the attractiveness of this method of dispute resolution.

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An opinion from the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union states that documents received in the UK by Romanian trans man must be recognised in his home country.

In a significant development regarding the rights of trans people in the European Union, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has issued an opinion calling for the automatic recognition in birth certificates of new name and gender marker acquired in a Member State.

The opinion specifically pertains to the case of Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, a trans Romanian man facing his home country’s authorities’ refusal to recognise in his birth certificate his new gender marker, acquired further to his legal gender recognition in the United Kingdom.

Advocate General Jean Richard de La Tour said it was imperative that the Romanian state record in his birth certificate entries related to his name and gender without additional procedures. This recognition, argued the Advocate General, is essential in upholding the rights to free movement and private and family life guaranteed by the European Union.

Arian’s case, supported by the ACCEPT Association, ILGA-Europe and TGEU, marks a pivotal moment in addressing the mutual equivalence of legal gender recognition (LGR) procedures across EU Member States.

The refusal of authorities in Romania to recognise Arian’s UK-issued identity documents has left him in a precarious situation, living with two different identities. Despite being a citizen of the European Union, Arian’s ability to exercise his freedom of movement and his right to private and family life is hindered by the lack of recognition of his true identity in his home country. This discrepancy exposes him to discrimination and humiliating treatment, particularly at border crossings.

Expressing anticipation for a favourable judgment from the CJEU, Arian emphasised the significance of having his identity accurately represented in official documents. “The favourable judgment of the CJEU is extremely important for me and many other Romanian and EU citizens,” he said. “It is about respecting a fundamental civil right. I am Romanian, I am in the European Union, I am trans. My documents must represent me and be updated.”

The importance of this case extends beyond Arian’s individual circumstances. It underscores the broader issue faced by thousands of individuals whose rights are compromised due to disparities in identity recognition among EU Member States. The opinion of the Advocate General reinforces the principle that rights legally obtained in one Member State must remain valid throughout the EU.

In response to the Advocate General’s opinion, Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director at ILGA-Europe, added: “The AG opinion confirms what we have been pointing out for EU institutions for quite some time: without mutual recognition of legal gender recognition from one member state to another, the right to freedom of movement is not guaranteed for trans people in the EU. We are looking forward to the judgement confirming this opinion and urge the European Commission yet again to put forward legislation that will guarantee the freedom of movement for all LGBTI people under its next term. The EU directive on parenthood recognition is a very important piece of the puzzle to ensure the freedom to reside and move across the EU for LGBTI people, but more is needed to ensure that trans people can move freely across the EU and enjoy citizenship rights on equal footing with every other citizen of the EU.”

As the CJEU deliberates on this case, there is a collective hope that the judgment will align with the opinion of the Advocate General and ensure the automatic recognition of Arian’s legal gender recognition in the corresponding entries of his birth certificate by the Romanian state. However, we hope that the Court will not take into account in its judgment the questions of “marriage and parentage” emphasised by the Advocate General in his Opinion, which are not at stake in Arian’s case.

Today, the Council of the EU officially adopted the EU Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence

As 13 civil society organisations¹ which advocate for human rights, gender equality, and the right for all to live free from violence, we welcome this first ever binding EU legislation on this issue as a groundbreaking step.

The Directive adopts a holistic approach to combat violence against women² and domestic violence, incorporating measures relating to prevention, protection, support for victims, access to justice and prosecution of perpetrators. This achievement is the result of long-term advocacy by feminist movements and Members of the European Parliament championing the European Commission’s ambitious proposal. We extend our gratitude to everyone involved in making this Directive as strong as possible.

We applaud the fact that the Directive recognizes the perpetration of female genital mutilation, forced marriage and certain forms of online violence as crimes. Unfortunately, other forms of violence were ultimately not criminalised, including intersex genital mutilation and forced sterilisation. We deeply regret that some Member States managed to derail the unprecedented opportunity to criminalise rape with a consent-based definition at the EU level. Sexual violence against women is endemic across the EU, with widespread impunity. Consent-based definitions of rape allow for all cases of rape to be included and strengthen protection and access to justice for victims of rape. We continue to call on all Member States who have not yet done so, to move towards adopting consent-based laws.

Crucially, the Directive will require Member States to do more to prevent rape, by raising public awareness of the fact that sex without consent is a crime, through awareness raising programmes and educational materials. We encourage Member States to embrace the comprehensive prevention approach outlined in the Directive, in particular primary prevention initiatives, and to provide mandatory comprehensive sexuality education, which includes consent education and challenges harmful gender norms.

The Directive further guarantees comprehensive support to victims of violence against women and girls and domestic violence and access to both general and specialist support services, shelters, support for child victims, as well as access to comprehensive medical care including sexual and reproductive health services. This is the first time that EU law imposes explicit obligations on Member States to provide access to this essential medical care for victims of sexual violence. Member States will also have to provide training for professionals likely to come into contact with victims, on how to provide this support.

The Directive recognises that victims of violence against women and domestic violence who experience intersectional discrimination are at a heightened risk of violence, and obliges Member States to meet their specific needs. Targeting a public figure, a human rights defender, or someone for their personal characteristics will constitute an aggravating circumstance. In the implementation of the Directive, Member States must ensure that all victims and survivors of gender-based violence are protected, no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.

However, EU lawmakers yet again silenced women impacted by EU migration policies. The only concrete step forward for migrant women is that the text requires Member States to make shelters available to all women experiencing domestic abuse, regardless of their residence status. Nonetheless we condemn that the final text does not retain provisions on protecting undocumented women’s personal data from being transmitted to immigration authorities (neither in the context of accessing shelters, nor in terms of accessing justice). Member States must ensure that women are not deterred from going to the police because of their residence status, by including access to safe reporting in the ongoing revision of the Victims’ Rights Directive.

We call on the European Commission to provide guidelines and training to Member States, based on international standards and in consultation with civil society organisations. We urge Member States to fully implement the Directive as soon as possible. Recalling that the Directive sets minimum standards, we call on Member States to go beyond these and to realise the highest standards across the EU.

We call on the European Commission to review the Directive in the next five years and to work towards comprehensive and inclusive measures to address all forms of sexual and gender-based violence without discrimination.

We, together with our members across Europe, are committed to providing our expertise, and look forward to supporting a strong implementation of the Directive, to progress towards a Europe where everyone is safe from gender-based violence.

1. Amnesty International, Center for Reproductive Rights, EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C), End FGM European Network, European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA), Human Rights Watch, ILGA-Europe (The European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN), La Strada International, Organisation Intersex International Europe (OII Europe), Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), TGEU (Trans Europe and Central Asia), Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE).
   Our organisations work on a diverse range of women’s rights issues. In the drafting of this document, we have been led by the expertise of women’s rights organisations and women human rights defenders from communities most impacted by the specific forms of violence described in each section. Our commitment to the text below represents our coming together as a collective with shared values, even though not every organisation has its own policy or programme of work dedicated to each issue. ↩︎
2. Throughout this statement, the term “women” should be understood as including “women and girls”, as in the definition of “violence against women” proposed by the European Commission in the Directive, which encompasses “violence directed against a woman or a girl”.  ↩︎

The Court of Justice of the European Union is to decide on lawsuit over the lack of provision of an option for non-binary persons, which may have a far-reaching effect

On Monday, April 29, the Court of Justice will be required to answer the question: Does GDPR and European non-discrimination law require organisations to provide an option for non-binary persons in their forms?

The hearing follows a lawsuit filed by the Mousse Association, representing 64 individuals, against France’s national state-owned railway company’s (SNCF) practice of forcing passengers to choose between the civil titles “Mr” or “Ms” when purchasing train tickets. If the association wins the case, private and public organisations in the 27 European Union States will have to either stop collecting gender markers when it is unnecessary or provide an option for non-binary persons in their forms.

This would be a significant step forward for the rights of non-binary persons, but also LGBTI people who do not identify within the gender binary.

The case relies on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), invoking the principles of data minimisation and accuracy and European non-discrimination law. It aims to set a significant precedent for the inclusion of all gender identities in the European Union, by requiring forms without any reference to gender markers or with inclusive options.

According Senior Strategic Litigation Officer with ILGA-Europe, Marie-Hélène Ludwig:  “The upcoming hearing is a crucial step to put an end to the misgendering and discrimination faced by non-binary persons who are forced to choose in their day-to-day lives between two options that do not correspond to their identity.”

According to Mr Étienne Deshoulières, the lawyer representing the Mousse Association: “This procedure is not only a fight against outdated forms, but a battle for the recognition and respect of each individual in their singularity. It defends the right of every person not to be trapped in the gender binary that does not correspond to their true identity. It is a question of respect for fundamental rights to self-determination, non-discrimination and the protection of personal data.”

ILGA-Europe, alongside Transgender Europe (TGEU), are providing support to the applicants and their lawyers in this case.

ILGA-Europe stands with Kazakhstan’s LGBTI Community amid Russia-style attempts to criminalise LGBTI people and their human rights

ILGA-Europe express solidarity with the LGBTI community in Kazakhstan as they face legislative proposals which will worsen the already exacerbated situation of the LGBTI community in the country. Two concerning anti-LGBTI legislative initiatives that were voiced last week by two separate groups of members of Kazakhstan’s Parliament threaten the fundamental rights and freedoms of LGBTI individuals in Kazakhstan.

The initiative by the Parliament members Aimagambetov and Ashimzhanov (both from Amanat Party) attempt to introduce a legal prohibition for mass media to write about “non-traditional sexual orientation”. In the same week, Parliament members Zhanbyrshin and Musabaev (also from Amanat party) introduced a draft amendment to include so-called “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” in the “discord incitement” provision 174 of the Criminal Code and to prohibit peaceful assemblies on the same ground.

Such initiatives aim to divert attention from pressing issues like natural disasters that the entire northern and western Kazakhstan has been suffering for the past few weeks, with so many villages and towns affected, and over 100,000 people relocated, as well as the nation’s worsening socioeconomic situation and rising public call for the elimination of domestic violence. We call on the Kazakhstan Government to not arbitrarily target the LGBTI community and violating the principles of non-discrimination enshrined in the Constitution of Kazakhstan.

In the past couple of weeks, according to some media reports and from information spreading in messenger chats, the Law Enforcement of Astana have been illegally raiding nightclubs, specifically targeting LGBTI people. This is demonstrative of how such anti-LGBTI discourse and initiatives directly reflect on the safety of LGBTI people.

Kazakhstan’s current legislation does not protect LGBTI people from bias-motivated crimes, places discriminatory and humiliating barriers for legal gender recognition, bans same sex marriage and adoption by LGBTI persons, among many other pressing issues. The existing provisions restricting human rights of LGBTI people and any further attempts to do so contradict Kazakhstan’s international legal commitments, including the implementation of Recommendation No. 139.48 within the Kazakhstan’s previous reporting under Universal Periodic Review cycle, which calls for creating an enabling environment for LGBTI activist groups and human rights defenders.

We are also deeply concerned about the implications of amending Article 14 of the Law on Peaceful Assemblies, which would restrict the right to peaceful assembly for the LGBTI community and other civil society actors. This move further marginalises an already vulnerable community and threatens the democratic principles Kazakhstan aspires to uphold.

ILGA-Europe denounces any attempts to introduce discriminatory legislation that targets the LGBTI community. The LGBTI community in Kazakhstan deserves legal protection and recognition without discrimination.

We urge the Parliament to refrain from any future attempts of adopting anti-LGBTI legislation, and start to engage in meaningful dialogue with civil society and expert organisations to ensure the protection of LGBTI rights. We call on Kazakhstan to uphold its constitutional duty to protect the rights of all citizens, including on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

We call upon the International Partners of Kazakhstan to join us in reinforcing the dialogue on asking the Government of Kazakhstan to work towards improving the situation with human rights of LGBTI people.

ILGA-Europe stand in solidarity with the LGBTI community in Kazakhstan and reaffirm our commitment to supporting their struggle for equality, dignity, and respect. We encourage individuals and organisations to join us in speaking out against discrimination and advocating for the rights of all LGBTI individuals in Kazakhstan.

BACKGROUND

On February 11, the Ministry of Information of Kazakhstan blocked the selftanu.kz website which aimed at raising awareness of LGBTI teenagers about their rights and providing them with information on healthcare and reproductive rights, among others. The Ministry justified its decision that the information on the website violates the norm of the legislation on preventing dissemination of information that would cause harm to the health and development of children.

On February 23, Kazakhstan’s President Tokaev signed the law preventing LGBTI people from mentoring orphans. When asked how the authorities would identify LGBTI identity of prospective mentors, the Vice-Minister of Education of Kazakhstan Natalia Zhumadildaeva stated that LGBTI people would be prevented from adopting and mentoring orphans according to these provisions. She claimed that the Ministry had developed a special psychological test for such purposes. Again these are non-scientific and inhumane approaches that contradict common sense and go against Kazakhstan’s national and international commitments to uphold human rights and non-discrimination.

On March 5 the authorities of the Almaty Mayor’s office responded to questions why it had prohibited the women’s inclusive rally dedicated to International Women’s Day marked on March 8. Almaty authorities recalled that over the past few years, representatives of feminist movements have already held authorised rallies on March 8. But officials were unhappy that during the protests the organisers and participants “repeatedly deviated from the stated topic.” They claimed that there had been numerous requests from different citizens not to allow the women’s rally, because reportedly “In appeals to them and in messages on social networks, the organisers of the rally, under the guise of the fight for women’s rights, actually promoted non-traditional values that were alien to Kazakh society such as same-sex relationships, marriages, LGBT symbols and others. And, in order to ensure the safety of participants in peaceful assemblies, in order to avoid violation of the rights of city residents and other persons, and to prevent violation of public safety by the Almaty authorities, a decision was made not to approve the rally of feminist organisations”.

On April 5, within the discussions of amendments to the Law on Mass Media, the first initiative was put forward by Parliament Members Askhat Aimagambetov and Zhanarbek Ashimzhanov (both from Amanat Party) to include provisions that would ban Mass Media from mentioning anything about LGBTI. This was followed by another more restrictive initiative on April 10 by Parliament Members Edil Zhambyrshin and Samat Musabaev (also from Amanat Party). In particular, they proposed an amendment to Article 174 of the Criminal Code (“Inciting social, national, tribal, racial, class or religious hatred”) to include criminal charges for those who break the law and publicly mention about LGBTI. Although, both provisions did not make it to the second reading of the bill and when it was passed to the upper Chamber of the Parliament. However, LGBTI activists fear these amendments may resurface as the initiators made it clear they would not withdraw their attempts to follow through.

For the past couple of weeks, according to media reports and information shared on messenger chats, law enforcement in Astana has been illegally raiding night clubs and specifically targeting LGBTI people under the false pretence of preventing illegal proliferation of drugs. Reportedly the police are also raiding private parties organised in apartments and houses, as well as nightclubs that are not specifically LGBTI-themed.

A case against Azerbaijan by a large group OF applicants who were arrested in a wave of anti-LGBTI police raids and forced to undergo medical examinations has been struck out by the European Court of Human Rights

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights decided to strike out A. v Azerbaijan and 23 other applications. The case involved a wave of police raids in Baku in September 2017 that led to the arrest, ill-treatment and forced medical examinations in detention of members of the LGBTI community.

In its decision, the Court considered that it was no longer justified to continue the examination of the applications given the Government’s unilateral declaration made in 2019, according to which it acknowledged that “there was a violation of the applicants’ rights guaranteed in the Convention” and offered to pay compensation to the applicants.

The applicants expressed deep dissatisfaction with this declaration, saying the Government’s acknowledgement lacks specificity regarding the nature and extent of the violations; the Government gave no undertaking for general measures to prevent future violations and there are no necessary provisions under domestic law for holding the perpetrators of those acts of violence accountable. This is particularly problematic as those groups kept being targeted subsequent to the 2017 arrests, in view of their perceived SOGIESC.

According to Leyla Osmanova, a victim of 2017 arrests, “The world saw it, the world knew about it. We were tortured, literally. Even a million dollars cannot cover the cost of psychological trauma, as I continue to live in fear. Although I am in a safe place now, that psychological trauma ruined my life. The court process took a long time, the decision is just a mere decision, the compensation is ridiculous.”

She added: “This event made me long for my native country. I have lost faith not in the country, but in the police and laws there.”

ILGA-Europe together with Civil Rights Defenders and REDRESS had submitted a third-party intervention in the case. Azerbaijan currently sits at the bottom of the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, which ranks all 49 European countries on a scale between 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality).

We, the undersigned equality and anti-discrimination organisations, call on the European Union’s leaders and European Institutions to ensure equality, anti-racism, and fundamental rights are a priority during the next legislative mandate.

We noted the advances in Equality which have been made by the European Union during this mandate. The appointment of the first-ever Commissioner for Equality was a welcome and much-needed initiative. It has shown that the European Commission is committed to advancing the values of equality enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union and to its duties under Article 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Equality and non-discrimination policies and initiatives became more visible and were addressed through several proposals such as standards for equality bodies, a Directive to combat violence against women, a legislative proposal on the European Disability Card and Parking Card, the action plan against racism, and a proposal for cross-border recognition of parental rights. These initiatives were coupled with strategies on gender equality, LGBTIQ and disability, as well as the EU Roma strategic framework and a Green Paper on Ageing.

However, the EU is far from being a Union of Equality- this is a work in progress, and right now, we witness rising backlash, racial injustice, inequality and discrimination. This needs urgent attention both at the EU and national levels.

For this, we specifically call on the European Union to put in place comprehensive legal protection against discrimination in the EU. We need to guarantee equality of treatment regardless of who you are or where you live in the European Union.

We also call on specific actions to guarantee that the European Union’s Institutions have adequate resources and staffing to prioritise and mainstream equality and non-discrimination, with special attention to vulnerable groups and intersectional discrimination:

• Appoint an EU Commissioner with a strong mandate for Equality and Fundamental Rights.
• Strengthen the European Commission’s services working on equality, non-discrimination and anti-racism, especially by establishing a new Directorate-General for Equality and Fundamental Rights.
• Revise and introduce strong strategies on all grounds under the Equality Framework beyond 2025 and ensure their mainstreaming in all policy areas.
• Ensure that the Equality Task Force has a strong mandate to ensure cooperation between different services on the implementation of the Equality Frameworks and that it works transparently and in close consultation and cooperation with European Equality networks.
• Host an annual “Equality Forum,” gathering policymakers, civil society, and other interested actors to evaluate and develop initiatives for realising a Union of Equality. The Forum should focus particularly on intersectional equality.
• Create an EU Council formation on Equality.
• Ensure the next EU budget properly funds civil society organisations working on equality, non-discrimination and anti-racism.
• Ensure discrimination is also addressed in the work of the EU in external action, international cooperation and humanitarian action.

We remind leaders that all initiatives must meaningfully involve equality organisations, anti-racism organisations and organisations representing the groups most subject to discrimination.

It is essential that the Union’s decision-making process is transparent, and organisations are properly resourced and supported to guarantee their active involvement.

It is also fundamental to ensure that staff working at the EU Institutions properly reflects the European population, not only in terms of nationality but also in terms of diversity of gender, race, ethnic or social origin, membership of a national minority, disability, age,  sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and variations of sex characteristics. We call on specific action to ensure it and to guarantee training to all staff training on equality and non-discrimination.

Only by working together will the European Union truly become a Union of Equality that reflects its motto of “United in Diversity”.

The undersigned organisations remain committed to supporting the European Institutions in achieving this crucial objective.

Signatories

• European Disability Forum
• ILGA-Europe
• AGE Platform Europe
• European Network Against Racism
• ERGO Network
• OII Europe
• IGLYO
• EL*C
• TGEU – Transgender Europe

Additional Information

• Joint statement: “Building an inclusive European Union of Equality” in Word
• Joint statement: “Building an inclusive European Union of Equality” in PDF

Organisations’ work on the European elections:

• European Disability Forum: “”Building an inclusive future for persons with disabilities in the EU”
• ILGA Europe: “Come out 4 Europe”
• AGE Platform Europe: AGE Manifesto for the 2024 European Parliament elections
• European Network Against Racism: “A Europe for All”
• ERGO Network: “End Racism to build a stronger Europe”

Register here to join us at 12:00 CEST (noon), Wednesday 3 April for a Skills Boost session designed for LGBTI activists who want your organisational communications to get a bit more strategic. The session will last 90 minutes.

We will cover:

• What is a communications strategy? (and how is it different from ‘strategic communications’?) What is the point of it?
• What is the minimum that any communications strategy should cover, and what is the menu of options if we want to be a bit more ambitious?
• Hearing from two LGBTI organisations who have gone through a communications strategy process recently – and what they learned from their experience.
• A small assignment to help you get started – if you complete it then you will be invited to the follow-up session at 12:00 CEST (noon), Wednesday 17 April where you can get individual feedback from our experts and each other and go deeper.

Register here to join the session on April 3rd. 

Register here to join the session on April 17th.

On Saturday 2 March, the Party of European Socialists is gathering in Rome for their Election Congress ahead of the June 2024 EU elections to discuss their priorities for the campaign and for the future of the EU.

We are grateful that the Party has chosen Rome as the location of this important gathering, as Italy is currently one of the countries in the EU facing the challenge of rapidly deteriorating rule of law and democratic standards, as well as direct attacks on fundamental rights of vulnerable groups, all of which the Party has acknowledged as being some of the greatest challenges facing the future of the EU. The Party of European Socialists has always stood in defence of democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights, and therefore the Congress taking place in Italy is particularly significant.

In your Election Resolution adopted in December 2023, you have rightfully stated that attacks on gender equality, women’s rights and LGBTI rights are inherently linked to de-democratisation and the undermining of EU law and international standards on fundamental rights. On the occasion of your Congress in Rome, Italian LGBTI civil society would therefore like to raise your attention to the current direct attacks on the fundamental rights of LGBTI people in Italy, led by Italy’s current government. We ask the Party to shine a light on the deplorable situation unfolding in Italy for LGBTI people, and for its member parties to support LGBTI civil society in withstanding and responding to these attacks, the Partito Democratico and Partito Socialista Italiano.

1. The Italian government’s planned amendments to the asylum law which would remove protection for LGBT refugees, would breach EU law

The Italian government plans to remove the protected grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) from the asylum law. This would mean that LGBT refugees are no longer protected based on their SOGI status.

In addition, on March 25, 2023, the list of so-called “safe countries of origin” was updated with the addition of two more countries where homosexuality is criminalised, Nigeria and The Gambia, and without providing any exceptions for at-risk categories, such as LGBTI people. These are in addition to Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, and Ghana.

Under EU law, Italy has several obligations to provide protection to vulnerable groups, including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Here are some of the key obligations:

• The Qualification Directive (Directive 2011/95/EU) requires member states to provide protection to refugees and persons eligible for subsidiary protection on the basis of, among other things, their sexual orientation and gender identity. Italy is obliged to implement the Directive into its national law.
• The EU’s asylum system is based on the principle of non-refoulement, which means that individuals cannot be returned to a country where they would face persecution or serious harm. This includes individuals who are at risk of persecution or serious harm based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• The EU’s Reception Conditions Directive (Directive 2013/33/EU) requires member states to ensure that asylum seekers have access to appropriate medical and psychological care, including care related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Italy is obliged to implement the Directive into its national law.

2. The government has ordered the discontinuation of transcriptions of foreign birth certificates of children born from surrogacy or artificial reproduction technology

In January 2023, the government issued a Directive instructing local authorities to discontinue the automatic transcription of foreign birth certificates of children born through surrogacy and inviting them to register only the biological parent. A second Directive was later issued, clarifying that these guidelines should also be followed in cases of children born following other artificial reproduction technology. Some prosecutors began to retroactively challenge the transcription of foreign birth certificates of children born to same-sex parents. In Padua at least 33 mothers of 37 children received notification that their child(ren)’s birth certificates, in which two women’s names appeared, were illegitimate. In many cases, the deregistration comes after many years, and the children thus ‘lose’ one mother, and sometimes their family name, from one day to the other. This exposes children to vulnerability and the loss of a number of family rights as guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

While the government claims that parents have a legal route to establish parentage of the second parent, namely via a special adoption procedure (“adozione in casi particolari”), LGBTI organisations have long pointed out that these procedures can take up to years, are very costly and depend on the courts, which vary from region to region.

The European Court of Human Rights has clearly ruled that Member States need to establish a mechanism to allow for recognition of the parent–child relationship for non-genetic parents, such as through adoption, and that children should not be blamed for their parents’ decisions, including about conception. In her 2023 country report on Italy, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed that the Italian procedure does not comply with the best interests of the child and reminded that even Italy’s Constitutional Court recommended the legislation be amended accordingly to ensure adoption rights for all families without discrimination. In the absence of legally ensured adoption for all, the Commissioner called on Italy to stop deregistering parents, as some prosecutors have started to do in a response to the governmental Decree.

3. Schools have been called upon to no longer accept the gender identity of trans children in education

In Italy the gender identity of trans students is not recognised by default. About 300 schools, though, have adopted a regulation to do it, called Carriera Alias. It allows (among other things) to change the name of the student in the internal documents and the school information systems. Carriera Alias, in other words, is a tool to avoid misgendering of trans and non-binary students, allowing them to use their chosen name, gender and pronouns in educational contexts. Regional Counselor of Lombardia, Giacomo Zamperini of the governing party  Fratelli d’Italia, tabled a motion to delegitimise the Carriera Alias by defining it as “illegitimate” and as “an attack against traditional family values, promoting the gender agenda”. The motion was then rejected, however, Counselor Pietro Macconi (also from governing party Fratelli d’Italia), wrote a letter to the Minister of Education and Merit, also asking for the Carriera Alias to be reviewed, with the clear aim of seeking its abolition in educational institutions. The Minister’s response is pending.

4. A law has been drafted to penalise surrogacy conducted abroad with criminal sanctions

The government is considering criminalising surrogacy arrangements made by Italian couples abroad, a move they claim is in line with protecting women and “traditional family values”. But in reality there is a risk that the children concerned (especially those in a rainbow family) may lose rights if their (intended) parents are indicted. As already mentioned, this is despite the European Court of Human Rights emphasising that children should not be blamed for their parents’ decisions (about conception). In light of the understandable controversy surrounding surrogacy, these children have a right to the protection of their private and family life.

5. Case Careggi: an investigation threatening the lives of transgender youth in Italy and the important work of health professionals

On 23 January 2024 the Minister of Health started an investigation requested by Senator Maurizio Gasparri from Forza Italia, on the public service of the Careggi Hospital in Florence, regarding the administration of triptorelin, a hormone blocker, to trans youth. The investigation is an attack on trans adolescents because it puts the service administered at Careggi at risk of closing down, regardless of the fact that these treatments are considered by the professionals as “a life-saving treatment” for trans youth.

The scientific community has reiterated that triptorelin is useful to avoid the risk of exposure to depression, self-harming behavior, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts for  trans and gender-diverse youth. Although the right to health in Italy is guaranteed by the Constitution, the health and psychophysical well-being of trans youth is being questioned on ideological grounds, with an increasing use of anti-gender propaganda based on incorrect medical-scientific information spreading in the media. The Careggi Hospital is one of two health centres in the whole country providing triptorelin treatment for trans youth. The World Health Organisation’s revision of ICD-11, which came into force in January 2022, mandates the depathologisation of trans identities in all areas of life. However, the Italian National Health System continues forcing trans people to undertake long and costly psychotherapy paths not in line with international standards and which impede trans youth from accessing the healthcare they need to live their lives in dignity and safety.

Conclusion

It is clear that the current government has begun a concerted attack on the rights of LGBTI people and on their ability to live their lives with dignity. The above-mentioned steps that the government is taking are clearly in breach of international human rights standards, such as EU law (the relevant asylum directives, as well as the non-discrimination clauses of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and EU Treaties), the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. These attacks are also reminiscent of developments happening in other countries that have seen LGBTI people as an easy target for stirring up unfounded fear in order to score cheap political points – now clearly identified as an authoritarian tactic used for example in Russia and Hungary.

It is crucial that the Partito Democratico and Partito Socialista Italiano work closely with Italian LGBTI civil society as partners to strategically tackle these current and future attacks, not only to protect the rights that all people are entitled to, but also to stem the oncoming tide of anti-democratic manoeuvres by the current government, and to work to create a critical mass opposing these trends. We call on the Partito Democratico and Partito Socialista Italiano to propose bold and comprehensive legislative changes that would guarantee adoption rights to same-sex couples, add SOGIESC as protected grounds in the hate crime law, and ban conversion practices on LGBTI people.

We hope that this PES Election Congress can mark the beginning of a constructive and strategic cooperation at the Italian level, and that the Party can highlight the situation of Italian LGBTI people to their European partners.

In solidarity,

Signatories

• Arcigay
• ARCO – Associazione Ricreativa Circoli Omosessuali
• Associazione Famiglie Arcobaleno
• Associazione Quore APS
• Centro Risorse LGBTI
• Certi Diritti
• Circolo di Cultura Omosessuale Mario Mieli
• Gruppo Trans APS
• Gaynet – Formazione e Comunicazione LGBTI
• ILGA-Europe – the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association
• Indie Pride
• Rete Genitori Rainbow

About Get Ready!

Get Ready! is a 2-day ILGA-Europe learning event on crisis communications for LGBTI organisations in Europe and Central Asia. It will take place on 3-6 May, 2024.

By working with LGBTI movements in Europe and Central Asia, we learned that crisis communications support is a priority for many LGBTI organisations and groups in the region. We know that this year might bring new challenges for the movement. And we know that many of you are already strategising and looking into ways to stay resilient.

This learning event on crisis communications will support your organisation in preparing for specific challenges or potential disruptions related to the activities you’ve planned or foresee this year.

What you will get from the training:

• Deeper understanding on what is a communications crisis, and how your team can prepare for one.
• Experience: solidarity scenario-based exercise that will help to learn by doing.
• Deeper understanding of the challenges other organisations face and ways to deal with them.

The programme will be shared with selected participants closer to the event. Here is what you can expect it to cover:

• A chance to share the communications threats that worry you in a supportive and private environment with your peers, to be listened to, and to have supportive advice and coaching on ideas for you to implement.
• A scenario-based exercise on crisis comms that ILGA-Europe designed and piloted with a group of grantee partner organisations in 2023. In this safe, supportive scenario exercise we will roleplay together a response to a developing communications crisis based on the experiences of LGBTI activists. We will facilitate and give tips about Preparation, Monitoring, Escalation, Diagnosis, and Response, but what you choose to do is up to you. Because it is better to practise in private than be unprepared in public.
• Discussions on solidarity in crisis communications. We believe that in crisis communications solidarity and connectedness are especially important: we are often affected by each other’s communications, and peer solidarity and amplification can make our individual crisis responses more impactful.
• Signposting to further resources and the potential of more follow-up coaching after the gathering.
• Networking and mutual learning with a group of 25 LGBTI activists from across Europe and Central Asia.

At the event, we will focus on the external communications aspects of crisis situations or disruptions to our activism. Please note that working through security aspects (safety, cybersecurity, internal communications, etc) won’t be prominently featured in this event’s programme. 

Practical details

Dates: 3-6 May, 2024

• 3 May: arrival
• 4-5 May: full-day event programme, with joint dinner on 4 May
• 6 May: departure. Please note that departure in the evening of 5 May is also possible provided that you attend the whole event.

Language: English

Number of participants: 25

Location: Location will be shared with selected participants^[1]. In choosing the location, we were guided by visa regime, availability of decent travel itineraries for participants from across Europe and Central Asia, past experience of ILGA-Europe and our members in organising events there, as well as consultation with local activists.

Costs:

• ILGA-Europe will arrange accommodation in shared rooms with breakfast with arrival on 3 May and departure on 6 May for all participants;
• The programme will include joint lunches on 4-5 May, organised by ILGA-Europe, as well as a joint dinner;
• Per diem offered in cash at the event will cover the rest of the meals and subsistence on 3-6 May;
• Travel costs will be reimbursed by ILGA-Europe after the event, upon full attendance. Once your participation is confirmed, you will need to arrange your travel within the budget parameters of the event. Participants coming from organisations working without any funding and therefore unable to pre-book tickets for their delegates can be exempt from this requirement. More information will be shared with participants once the selection is made.

Accessibility:

• We aim at ensuring that this event is accessible for everyone in attendance. Please share your accessibility needs in the application form so that we can take them on board.

Trainers and facilitators

• Svetlana Zakharova, Senior Programmes Officer, ILGA-Europe

Before joining ILGA-Europe, Svetlana Zakharova worked with the Charitable Foundation Sphere and the Russian LGBT Network as a communications officer. Within ILGA-Europe, Svetlana coordinates the Strategic Communications programme.

• Sho Walker Konno, Strategic Communications Consultant for ILGA-Europe

Sho Walker-Konno is a communications coach for activists. He has coached activists in 70+ countries, for the past four years specialising in advising reproductive justice and LGBTI groups dealing with the ‘anti-gender’ opposition.  

Who is invited to apply

LGBTI organisations and groups from across Europe and Central Asia are invited to join by delegating a participant to apply for this event.

Get Ready! is meant for your organisation if:

• Your organisation/group is based and works in Europe and Central Asia^[2] and needs to build its capacity to run crisis comms in connection to specific planned activities and/ or foreseen external challenges in 2024;
• The foreseen challenge and case that you are coming to the event with is concrete and real: it can be anything from a challenging first Pride festival in a non-capital city that you or another organisation is hosting later this year, to national elections that are expected to stir anti-LGBTI sentiments;
• You can explain why your organisation expects these challenges to emerge and how new knowledge and skills can mitigate the risks;
• Your organisation and you already have some experience in or exposure to crisis communications. We do not expect any extensive expertise but rather some past experience where your organisation needed to engage in crisis comms, whether successfully or not (it can be as simple as experience of working with negative comments online);
• Your organisation has the capacity to follow up on the event and integrate new knowledge in its work; you, as the delegated participant, are supported by your organisation to dedicate time to the event, attending it in full, and to bring the knowledge back to the team.

For Get Ready! to be a truly enriching experience, we aim at bringing together a pool of diverse participating organisations and activists in terms of profiles, identities, experiences, and geography. To make sure that there is a diversity of experiences, we invite a maximum of one person from an organisation or group to apply.

How to apply

To apply, you need to complete and submit the application form to Svetlana Zakharova at svetlana@ilga-europe.org by March 10, 2024, midnight (CET). Please indicate the title of the event (Get Ready!) in the subject line.

All applicants will be informed about the outcomes of the selection process on March 20 the latest.

If you have any questions about Get Ready!, do not hesitate to reach out to Svetlana via svetlana@ilga-europe.org

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^[1] If the location affects your decision to apply, please contact Svetlana Zakharova (svetlana@ilga-europe.org), and we will let you know privately the location.

^[2] For this call Europe and Central Asia is considered to include the following countries: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

We welcome and celebrate with local activists the news that the Greek parliament has adopted an historic bill introducing marriage equality, granting marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples, as well as fully recognising marriages that took place in other countries, and family ties of children who were born abroad to same-sex parents.

ILGA-Europe and NELFA welcome the news from yesterday, 15 February 2024, that the Greek Parliament  adopted a bill introducing marriage equality.

This vote reflects the trend in Greek and European societies towards increasing equality for same-sex couples. The new marriage equality law will grant marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples, as well as fully recognise all marriages and family ties of children who were born abroad to same-sex parents, and comes as a result of clear political leadership from the current Greek government.

The adoption of this law comes at a time when public acceptance of LGBTI people is on the rise in Greece and across Europe. In fact, an EU survey conducted in 2023 shows that public opinion in Greece as regards same-sex marriage is at an all-time high, marking also the largest increase in approval across all of the EU since the last iteration of the survey in 2019.

The law also follows a number of important legislative steps taken by the current Greek government to improve the access of LGBTI people to their rights and dignity, such as becoming the fifth European country to ban intersex genital mutilation (IGM) in July 2023, lifting the ban on men who have sex with men to donate blood in January 2023 and banning so-called ‘conversion practices’ against LGBTI minors and ‘vulnerable’ LGBTI people in May 2023.

Despite this important step towards equality for LGBTI families, the law does not remove all discrimination as:

• The law does not allow for access to in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) for same-sex couples of two women, meaning that the current discriminatory practice of only single women unable to conceive a child being able to access IVF in a Greek clinic, persists. This should also be made possible for same-sex couples made of two women, who also cannot conceive a child otherwise. Of the 19 EU countries which allow access to IVF for single women, the vast majority of them also allow access to IVF for female couples, coming to a total of 15. This reflects trends across the EU to ensure more equitable access to family and reproductive rights.
• Currently in Greece, altruistic surrogacy is available to opposite-sex couples only, creating a discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation i.e. gay men do not have equal access to the ability to have a child and form a family. The new law has not addressed this.

Greece’s adoption of marriage equality is a hugely important step for the recognition of equality of all couples, and a first step in achieving equality for all parents and people who wish to form a family. We encourage the Greek government to look at the remaining gaps in legislation and to propose measures to bring full equality for rainbow families in Greece.

Join statement by:

• ILGA-Europe
• NELFA – Network of European LGBTIQ* Families Associations

Why we launch this call

Last year, ILGA-Europe launched a new programme focused on work done by and for racialised LGBTI communities. With this call, ILGA-Europe continues its commitment to providing funds and support for this part of LGBTI movement that addresses intersectional impacts of injustice, racialisation, racism and supremacy, and specific harms affecting the lives of racialised LGBTI communities across Europe.

Many LGBTI organisations and groups run by racialised LGBTI activists continue to face obstacles in accessing funding while taking on the burden of exposing structural oppressions, building and sustaining the resilience of racialised communities, and filling the gaps in provision of services, care and spaces for racialised LGBTI people.

The work of these groups highlights the structural nature of intersectionality, brings to light many interconnected oppressions and reveals the ways they interact to produce specific harms. By continuing our support for this part of LGBTI movement, ILGA-Europe want to recognise the effort and knowledge it takes to address intersectionality, strengthen organisations run by racialised LGBTI activists, and deepen solidarity with racialised LGBTI communities.

We acknowledge a great value for the wider movement in making the work of racialised LGBTI activists more visible and better supported. We see an opportunity to share the learning from this programme to the wider movement, as we believe that solutions and approaches that include a few will pave the way and point to the solutions for many.

Aim of the program

The aim of this program is to address the intersectional impact of injustice, racialisation, racism and specific harms affecting the lives of racialised LGBTI communities across Europe.

This program will do it by:

• Supporting, strengthening and advancing the work of up to 12 European LGBTI organisations that are led by racialised LGBTI people and work with and for racialised LGBTI communities;
• Creating spaces for the group to exchange and build connections through holding regular partner meetings

Structure of the program

Participation in the program involves TWO components:

• Financial support of a project (up to €25,000 per project for 12 months),

AND

• Regular partner meetings that will bring groups together (on-line) to strategise and share work and experiences (three meetings in 12 months).

Available funding

• We can support up to 12 organisations with grants in the amount of €20,000 to €25,000: up to 10 grants to the EU-based organisations and up to two grants to non-EU based organisations;
• The project has to run for 12 months: from 1 June 2024 until 1 June 2025.

Type of organisations and groups we will support

This call is aimed specifically for registered and non-registered LGBTI-run organisations and initiative groups in Europe that are:

• Led by racialised LGBTI people and
• Working for and with racialised LGBTI communities.

Due to our donor’s limitations, we are able to support only organisations that are:

• Member organisations of ILGA-Europe as of 1 June 2024 (start of the project). If your application for membership is under consideration as of 2 April 2024 (the deadline for this application), you are eligible to apply. There is more information about membership in the Q&A document in the application package.

Non-registered organisations and groups are eligible to apply, but must partner with a registered legal entity that is able to receive funds from ILGA-Europe. This entity cannot be a physical person.

When we speak about racialised LGBTI communities, we are referring to LGBTI communities whose lives – and life experiences – are shaped and limited by racialised profiling, racist structures, policies, treatment and discrimination. Because intersectional oppressions are rooted in the ‘logic’ of a human hierarchy, with Whiteness and patriarchy as supreme, we know that harms will particularly affect people racialised as Black, as well as Indigenous people, people of colour, racialised minorities in Western and Northern Europe (such as Roma, Kurds, Sami people etc.) and in Central and Eastern Europe (such as Crimean Tatars, people from Central Asia and South Caucasus in Russia etc.

Type of projects we are looking to support

We are looking for projects whose primary aim is to address the intersectional impact of injustice, racialisation, racism and specific harms affecting the lives of racialised LGBTI communities across Europe.

We will support projects that offer to do this through one (or several) of the following ways of working:

• Facilitating fairer/better access of racialised LGBTI communities to opportunities, services, spaces and care from which these communities have been historically excluded;
• Forging and advancing collaboration and partnerships with other actors: activist groups (racialised or not; LGBTI or beyond), media, authorities and/or service providers;
• Exploring, reclaiming and enhancing voices and experiences from racialised LGBTI communities to challenge existing structures, change existing practices, mobilise wider support and engage the community;
• Strengthening internal organisational structures, skills and practices to build a sustainable presence for and with(in) the communities and wider civic society space.

Budget criteria

Budgets up to €25,000 per 12 months of the project are eligible. Only costs between 1 June 2024 to 1 June 2025 can be included in the budget. The types of costs covered by this programme are direct project costs and can include:

• Personnel costs
• Travel and event costs (both physical and digital)
• Costs related to obtaining external expertise and/or services associated with the implementation of the project
• Interpretation and translation costs
• Communication activities and campaigns related to the aim of this call, including social media and traditional media fees, production of materials, design, printing
• A fair proportion of administrative costs or core organisational costs which are linked to the implementation of the project (rent, utilities, IT, technology, telecommunications, accounting, administrative fees, fiscal sponsor fees, depreciation of new and existing equipment).

Under this call, there is NO budget percentage limitation to cover personnel and consultancy costs, as long as they are directed towards the objective of the call. This means that you can include as many human resources or external personnel costs as needed, and these costs might represent an important share of your budget.

Organisational capacity building can be included. This means projects can incorporate training, internal learning for staff and/or volunteers and other activities aimed at building the knowledge and skills needed for organisations to meet the broader purpose of this call.

You can look at an example of the prefilled budget we provided in the application package. This can give you a clearer idea what information we need from you to include and in what format for us to be able better assess the financial part of the project. 

Time commitment

We are aware that many LGBTI organisations run by racialised LGBTI people operate on voluntary bases, with limited human, financial and time recourse. Therefore, we want to communicate in advance time commitment needed for this programme apart from implementing the project. This is the time needed to connect to other originations within the programme, communicate with ILGA-Europe and report back.

Participation in the programme comes with the following commitments:

• What:  Three on-line meetings for programme partners to come together, share space and experiences, learn about each other’s work, build connections

When: July 2024 (kick-off), February 2025 (mid-way), and June 2025 (closing)

Time: 1h 30 mins each meeting

• What: Four progress calls with ILGA-Europe to discuss an ongoing work, implementation of the project, needs, challenges, opportunities

When: June, September, January and April

Time: 1h each call

• What: Interim financial report

When:  4 November

Time: as required depending on your capacities and needed support from us

• What: Final financial and narrative reports

When: mid-June 2025.

Time: as required depending on your capacities and needed support from us

We will schedule meetings in advance and in conversation with you.

Full information and guidance on reporting financial and administrative requirements will be provided to successful applicants.

ILGA-Europe staff that will work with you

In this programme you will be closely working with two ILGA-Europe colleagues: Nadzeya Husakouskaya and Antonella Cariello.

As a Programmes Officer, Nadzeya is the main contact between you and ILGA-Europe. They hold key elements of the programme – communication with partner organisations, organisation of connecting spaces, structure and design of the program, learnings for ILGA-Europe and the wider movement. 

As a Finance and Grant Officer, Antonella oversees and supports financial aspects of the project implementation. She handles any grant management, budget and finance-related questions.

You can read more about both colleagues here.

Key Things to Consider

In selecting proposals, ILGA-Europe will prioritise projects that respond to the framework, aim, objectives, and areas of work of this call, and:

• Clearly communicate how injustice, racialisation, and racism are impacting racialised LGBTI communities in the local contexts (Questions 2.1, 4.1 and 4.2 in Application form)
• Present a well thought-through plan for how the work will be carried out and how it will contribute to positive outcomes for racialised LGBTI communities in the context and the obstacles (practical, political etc) you may face (Section 4 in Application Form and the Budget)
• Have strong ties to the local racialised LGBTI communities and connections to local LGBTI movement (or some parts of it) (Section 2 in Application Form)
• Work towards bridging gaps: in services, within and amongst the communities, with other groups and actors (Questions 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 5.1 in Application form)
• Strive to establish connections, collaborations, practices and tools that can live beyond the project’s lifetime (Questions 4.2, 4.3, and 5.1 in Application Form)
• Have a minimal financial capacity and some financial management system in place to implement the project (Section 3 in Application form and the Budget)

Do you have any questions?

• You can read Q&A document in the application package. The Q&A document will be updated on 26 February and 26 March after on-line Q&A sessions.

• You can come to one of the online Q&A sessions we will hold – on 21 February, Wednesday, 17.00-18.00 CET (register) and 21 March, Thursday, 12.00-13.00 CET (register). The questions and answers from these sessions will be included into an updated version of Q&A document for those won’t be able to be present at the sessions.

• While working on the budget, you can look at the example of the prefilled budget we provided in the application package. It illustrates the information that needs to be included in the budget and formats in which to provide it to make financial aspects of the project clear.

• You can e-mail nadzeya@ilga-europe.org and get an answer via e-mail. All answers to the questions received via e-mail will make it to the updated Q&A document as well.

Application deadline and timeline

• Proposals should be submitted using the attached application form and budget template to nadzeya@ilga-europe.org. The last day to submit your application (deadline) is 2 April 2024, Tuesday, 09:00 CEST (morning).

• We will inform all applicants about the outcomes of the selection process via the e-mail provided in the application by 15 May 2024 at the latest.

• Contracts will be signed with successful applicants in May 2024. Successful applicants should be available to respond to requests during that period.

• The timeline for all projects supported in this programme is fixed: Projects are to start on 1 June 2024 and end on 1 June 2025.

Advance planning information for successful applicants:

• Partner meetings will be scheduled for July 2024 (kick-off meeting) and February 2025 (mid-way meeting) as soon as the cohort of partner organisations is selected. The closing on-line meeting will happen in June 2025 and will be scheduled at the beginning of 2025.

• Progress calls with ILGA-Europe in June, September, January and April will be scheduled on a rolling basis.

• A financial interim report will be due on4 November 2024 and the final financial and narrative reports in mid-June 2025.

Application pack

The European Court of Human Rights has issued a judgement against Poland in a case taken by five same-sex couples in the country, seeking to have their relationships legally protected.

Today, in the case of Przybyszewska and Others v. Poland, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the Polish State is in violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, having failed to comply with its duty to ensure that the applicants had a specific legal framework providing for the recognition and protection of their same-sex unions.

That failure had resulted in the applicants’ inability to regulate fundamental aspects of their lives and amounted to a breach of their right to respect for their private and family life.

The case was taken to the ECHR in 2017 and 2018 by five same-sex couples in stable relationships who live in the Polish cities of Lodz, Cracow and Warsaw.

Since marriage is the only way to formalise a relationship in Poland, the couples independently decided to marry a few years ago and approached their local civil registry offices in order to carry out the necessary formalities to get married. The authorities refused to marry them, as under Polish law marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

One of the Polish Government’s arguments was that the traditional concept of marriage as a union of a man and a woman constituted Poland’s social and legal heritage, but the Court noted that the present case did not concern same-sex marriage. Member States, it said, are able to determine the exact nature of the legal regime to be made available to same-sex couples, but have significantly less discretion when it comes down to legal recognition and protection in general.

The Court therefore concluded that the Polish legal framework could not be said to provide for the core needs of recognition and protection of same-sex couples in a stable and committed relationship. Same-sex partners are unable to regulate fundamental aspects of their life together, such as those concerning property, maintenance, taxation, and inheritance. Also, in the majority of situations, their relationship holds no weight in dealings with the judicial or administrative authorities.

The Court took note of the applicants’ and third-party interveners’ submissions indicating the increasingly hostile and homophobic attitudes towards sexual minorities displayed by high-ranking politicians from the then ruling party in Poland, including resolutions “counteracting LGBT ideology” passed by some local government bodies in Poland. Hateful statements had also apparently been made by one of the current judges of the Constitutional Court about the LGBTI community.

The case was supported by the Coalition for Civil Unions and Marriage Equality, which includes the NGO’s: Love Does Not Exclude, the Campaign Against Homophobia, the Polish Society for Anti-Discrimination Law, and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

According to coordinator for the Coalition, attorney Paweł Knut: “As of today, we start living in a new reality in which the roles have reversed. Same-sex couples no longer have to ask to be recognised in court or in an office. Thanks to the Court’s verdict, it is the state that has to start justifying why it has not yet put proper legal protection in place.”

ILGA-Europe were one of nine groups who intervened in the case. According to our Head of Litigation, Arpi Avetisyan: “Today’s judgment from the European Court is a crucial stepping stone in ensuring the rights of same-sex couples in Poland are duly recognised and protected.  No more ‘if’s’ and ‘but’s’ can justify delays in putting in place a framework for legal recognition of rainbow families.”

On Monday this week, Donald Tusk secured the support of the Polish parliament to head a new government, bringing to an end eight years of right wing government under the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Mirka Makuchowska of the Polish LGBTI NGO, Campaign Against Homophobia has called on the new prime minister to meet with NGO’s in the light of the ruling. “After eight years of humiliation, a campaign of hatred against LGBT+ people by the government and the state apparatus, a face-to-face meeting with the Prime Minister is badly needed, not least so that Polish women and men can see that there is no longer a better and worse class of citizens, only one nation that we, LGBT+ people, are a part of,” she said.

Welcoming the judgement, one of the litigant couples, Michał and Wojciech, said: “We are hopeful that we may live to see the moment when the state finally acknowledges our 20-year relationship. This is important to us for practical reasons – security in our daily lives – but also for symbolic reasons, so we can finally feel that the state treats us on an equal footing with other citizens. Of course, we hope that the ruling coalition will take the verdict seriously and quickly fulfil the promises they made during the election campaign.”

The Polish government must now report to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on the implementation of the judgment.

Today, Russia’s Supreme Court banned what it called the “international LGBT public movement” as extremist. The LGBTI movement’s activities within Russia were said to “incite social and religious discord” in violation of the country’s anti-extremism laws.

This violently disproportionate decision, which has been classified as a state secret and is therefore not open to scrutiny, makes imprisonment a very real scenario for participating in activism, sharing information about LGBTI people’s human rights, or simply speaking up. It is an attempt to completely shut down any LGBTI organising and instil fear of prosecution and imprisonment among LGBTI people in general, as well as those who support them.

Adding ‘the international LGBT movement’ to a list of over 100 banned ‘extremist’ groups in Russia, it also extends beyond Russia’s borders, opening gates to prosecution of any entity or person at home or abroad involved in LGBTI activism as ‘extremist’.

ILGA-Europe condemns this abhorrent attack on LGBTI people and human rights groups in Russia. This ban is unprecedented in our region and outlaws organisations and individuals who have been withstanding harsh state-led attacks since 2013, both those targeting the rights of LGBTI people and those targeting independent civil society and media.

We stand in solidarity with LGBTI activists in Russia, who have remained resilient and determined in the face of repeated and escalating attacks on their work, lives and freedom. ILGA-Europe has been working to directly support and empower the LGBTI movement in Russia through providing resources, learning, networking and convening opportunities, as well as mobilisation of solidarity networks, for more than 15 years. We are committed to continue doing so while learning about what is needed as the situation evolves.

In our consultations and meetings, Russian activists are saying loud and clear that action is needed now more than words. While organisations will feel the need to comment on today’s decision, we ask those who hold resources to do more than simply condemn. We urge them to recommit to staunchly supporting LGBTI organising in Russia through funding, security assistance, logistical and diplomatic support to relocations of those at risk, and other forms. In doing so, it is paramount to centre the strategies, guidance, knowledge and experience of LGBTI activists and groups that operate in the country and directly engage LGBTI communities in their work.

All over Europe and Central Asia, LGBTI people are used by different political payers to gain the power. Our opponents create and feed harmful and dangerous narratives about us and our struggles. Is it possible to communicate with our target audiences without playing their rules and not feeding into their narratives?

Join this online session to learn how to proactively and effectively communicate while not playing into populist narratives that feed polarisation. You will get the first-hand insights about the strategies used in Hungary, where Háttér Society used the so-called “anti-LGBT Referendum” to talk to their allies and in Spain, where La Intersession successfully campaigned for the rights of trans people and even prepared a guide: How we can change trans narratives collectively.

Speakers: 

• Alberto Abellán, La intersección, Spain 
• Javier Vaquero, La intersección, Spain 
• Luca Dudits, Háttér Society, Hungary

The session will take place online on 13 December at 13:00 CET. You can register to join the event here.

Today, November 20, we celebrate UN World Children’s Day, and feel compelled to draw attention to the recent developments in Italy where some children no longer have their parents recognised.

Earlier this year, Italy’s Minister of Interior of Meloni’s government announced that registrars should no longer register the children of same-sex couples. The government’s intimidation resulted in a series of administrative and legal attacks against LGBTIQ* families throughout the country. In Padua, at least 33 mothers of 37 children received notification that their child(ren)’s birth certificates, in which two women’s names appeared, were illegitimate. On Tuesday 14 November 2023, the first hearings possibly leading to the retroactive removal of the non-biological mothers’ names from their respective birth certificates, effectively erasing the legal motherhood of the non-biological mothers, took place before the Court of Padua. The public prosecutor’s office and the lawyer of the mothers in question, claim that removing one mother is unconstitutional.

In many cases, the deregistration comes after many years, and the children thus ‘lose’ one mother, and sometimes their family name, from one day to the other. The deregistration of a parent marks a clear breach of human rights, with significant negative impacts on the well-being and day-to-day lives of the parents and the children, and is clearly not in the best interests of the child.

These attacks are possible due to the fact that Italy lacks a national law ensuring recognition at birth or through the adoption of the children of same-sex couples. A few courageous mayors have in the past agreed to register the birth certificates of children with two mothers or transcribe the birth certificates of children with two fathers to ensure the children are not exposed to discrimination. The order to deregister one of the parents ultimately amounts to orphanage by decree, instigated by the prosecution and in line with the Meloni government’s clear stance of not recognising the parental rights of LGBTIQ* individuals.

This is a reminder that only legal protections such as adoption rights for same-sex couples can ensure that the fundamental rights and the best interest of all children to have their parents recognised are guaranteed.

These attacks on rainbow families are happening in the context of broader attacks on the LGBTIQ* community in Italy and their fundamental rights by the government. Similar to the guidelines to deregister parents, schools have been called upon to no longer accept the gender identity of trans children in education, and a draft law proposes to withdraw the possibility of seeking asylum based on prosecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBTIQ*-phobic hate speech, also from politicians, has been on the rise. The Meloni government is proposing to criminalise surrogacy arrangements made by Italian couples abroad, another move that might leave children without parents and thereby extremely vulnerable. 

The European Court of Human Rights clearly ruled that states need to establish a mechanism to allow for recognition of the parent–child relationship for non-genetic parents, such as through adoption, and that children should not be blamed for their parents’ decisions, including regarding conception. Children have an undeniable right to the protection of their private and family life. World Children’s Day serves as a reminder of our collective responsibility to ensure every child’s right to a stable and loving family environment. 

We condemn the recent attacks on rainbow families and urge the Italian government to reconsider the current anti-LGBTIQ* actions and decisions. All families need to be recognised and respected, without discrimination, in order to protect the best interest of the child and make sure they are not exposed to discrimination.

• NELFA – Network of European LGBTIQ* Families Associations
• Famiglie Arcobaleno, ItalyArcigay Nazionale, Italy
• ILGA-Europe
• EL*C – Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community
• Društvo kulturno, informacijsko in svetovalno središče
• Legebitra, Slovenia
• Familles-arc-en-ciel/Regenbogenfamilien/famiglie_arcobaleno/famiglias_a’artg, Switzerland
• Sateenkaariperheet ry / Rainbow Families Association Finland 
• ILGA World

The Council of Europe will, in 2024, conduct a third comprehensive review of the Committee of Ministers Recommendation (2010)5 (CM/Rec(2010)5). The CM/Rec(2010)5 was previously reviewed in 2013 and 2019, with coordinated civil society input those reviews.

This will involve the following steps for the Council of Europe and its Member States:

November 2023	Council of Europe preparation of a questionnaire for Member States
January 2024	Council of Europe pre-fills the questionnaire for Member States based on publicly available information and sends to governments
June 2024	Member States complete the questionnaire and return to CoE
2nd half 2024	CoE reviews materials from Member States and civil society, prepares report for review by the Steering Committee on Anti-discrimination, Diversity, and Inclusion in 2025

Civil society will have access to the unfilled questionnaire as of November 2023, and is encouraged to submit shadow reports based on the questionnaire.

Activities

To ensure strong civil society engagement, ILGA-Europe will support 20 organisations and groups to develop shadow assessments of the questionnaire and submit shadow reports. Additionally, ILGA-Europe will submit the Annual Reviews and Rainbow Maps for the covered time period, and compile a submission of regional specific trends based on the work of the civil society partners in the project.

In early December, ILGA-Europe will host a mandatory kick-off webinar on 13 December 2023 from 14h00 CET to 16h00 CET with all selected participants to talk about the project, the questionnaire, and specific questions for the process. Following this, participants will work independently until the end of February, when they will submit draft completed questionnaires to ILGA-Europe. ILGA-Europe staff will be available to provide 1-on-1 support for organisations and consortia during this period.

On 16 March, all participants will come to Brussels for a mandatory in-person 1-day consultation to discuss their drafts and overall issues with the process, share ideas about where to look for information, and plan their finalisation steps for their submissions. All travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs will be covered by ILGA-Europe for one person per organisation or consortium and do not need to be included in the project budget.

ILGA-Europe staff will remain available for 1-on-1 support following the consultation as participants finalise.

Participants will send their final submissions to ILGA-Europe in May, and will finalise the joint regional submission by the beginning of June. ILGA-Europe will submit all national submissions as well as the regional submission in June.

Timeline

Deadline / timeframe	Action
04 December 2023	Call for interest submissions from civil society applicants due
10 December 2023	ILGA-Europe informs civil society applicants of selections
13 December 2023	Kick-off webinar with civil society participants
From December 2023 to February 2024	Grantees work on the questionnaire independently; ILGA-Europe staff available upon request
28 February 2024	Civil society questionnaire submissions first draft due
16 March 2024	Consultation meeting, Brussels
01 May 2024	Civil society final submissions due

Budget and payment schedule

Civil society partners will be able to apply for up to 3000€ per Member State. Individual organisations and consortia are both encouraged to apply. Should more than one organisation or consortia from the same Member State apply with comparable applications, organisations will be encouraged to create one larger consortium to split the funding and the work for the project. It will not be possible to fund more than one project per country.

Payments will be made in two tranches based on deliverables.

Financial reporting or documentation will not be required, but funding must be treated as project-specific in partners’ accounts, and all money must be spent on the project (e.g. not added to reserves). ILGA-Europe retains auditing rights, and should ILGA-Europe auditors choose, they may require documentation to support expenses within this project.

Application

Submit the application pack (below) completed, by Monday, 4 December 2023 at 12:00 PM (noon) CET) to cianan@ilga-europe.org

Today, alongside five other international human rights organisations, we demand that the EU takes specific steps to ensure respect for the human rights of LGBTI people in Turkey in future EU-Turkey relations.

The LGBTI+ community in Türkiye is increasingly the target of discrimination, intimidation and violence, said the European Commission in its 2023 Enlargement Package published last week. It also points out that the activities of LGBTI+ organisations continue to be unduly restricted, LGBTI+ people and human rights defenders continue to be targeted with legal sanctions for participating in Pride events, and LGBTI+ people continue to face hate speech, stigmatisation, and smear campaigns.

According to our assessment and that of LGBTI+ human rights defenders these trends will intensify in the coming months.

After the May 2023 elections, Türkiye has explicitly expressed its desire for the EU to revive its accession process. Beyond the enlargement framework, EU leaders are considering options for engaging with Türkiye in areas of mutual interest, with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission preparing a report on the future of EU-Türkiye relations ahead of the 14-15 December European Council. Indeed, in recent weeks, EU officials have also signalled an intention  to intensify dialogue and cooperation with Türkiye, including on issues such as visa facilitation, trade and investment, and migration.  

In light of these developments, we remind the EU and Türkiye that respect for rule of law and human rights must remain at the core of EU-Türkiye relations, regardless of the framework in which they develop. The EU’s accession process is anchored in the respect for fundamental rights, including those of LGBTI+ people, and such respect remains a cornerstone in all areas of the EU’s external action. We therefore call on the EU institutions to ensure that all discussions on EU-Türkiye relations – including the upcoming report due to be presented at the December European Council – take into account the human rights concerns we have outlined below, and that all steps toward engaging with Türkiye are used to promote tangible human rights improvements in the country. 

Hate speech against LGBTI+ people

Discrimination and hate speech which constitute incitement to hostility or violence against LGBTI+ people in Türkiye continued throughout 2023, often by high-level government officials, including the President. The run-up to the elections was marred by a high volume of anti-LGBTI+ statements from politicians, and smear campaigns against LGBTI+ people led by the ruling party. Since the election, pro-government media outlets have continued this alarming pattern of stigmatisation and discrimination.

In both September 2022 and 2023, the “Great Family Platform” organised anti-LGBTI+ marches in which some participants called for the banning of LGBTI+ organisations and events, and which led to commentaries justifying a call for the death penalty against LGBTI+ people. The promotional videos for the marches, in which LGBTI+ people were stigmatised, were approved by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) as public service advertisements. In 2022, the advertisement presented LGBTI+ people as a “virus,” and in 2023, the advertisement targeted so-called “LGBT propaganda.”

Türkiye is a party to many international treaties that prohibit discrimination, including on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Among those most relevant to the violations described are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Turkish government has an obligation to protect everyone from discrimination, and should not be part of or show complacency towards any statements that could encourage discrimination and target a marginalized group, including LGBTI+ people.

We call on the EU to condemn discriminatory speech against LGBTI+ people and human rights defenders and to persist in urging Türkiye’s government and all its representatives to abstain from making statements that stigmatise and discriminate against LGBTI+ people, as such remarks put them at risk of harassment and violence. The EU should call for a prompt, impartial, thorough and effective investigation into any attacks and other forms of harassment against LGBTI+ people and for perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Freedom of peaceful assembly, in particular Pride events

This year’s Pride season in Türkiye began shortly after the legislative and presidential election, and spanned a number of weeks. A record number of Pride events were planned, despite blanket bans and the threat of police violence and detention of LGBTI+ human rights defenders.

LGBTI+ human rights defenders courageously defied political pressure and bans in order to claim their right to freedom of assembly and expression, but once again faced a number of fundamental rights violations. Across the country, LGBTI+ people and their allies were denied the right to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The police used unnecessary and excessive force against protestors, and arbitrarily detained people participating in the events as well as bystanders.

Police intervened in at least 10 LGBTI+ rights related events and pride marches, detaining at least 224 people, including lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders, and foreign nationals. An opposition MP was also targeted and threatened with detention. At least 5 foreign nationals, including an Iranian LGBTI+ activist with international protection status, were held in removal centres for up to one month, facing deportation. The excessive use of force deployed during the police interventions violates the right to peaceful assembly, which is protected under domestic law and international treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 2023, despite the continued anti-LGBTI+ rhetoric, bans and attacks on Pride marches, LGBTI+ human rights defenders continued their resistance with numerous successes, as many Pride events were organised, which once again underscores the strength and resilience of the LGBTI+ movement and people’s commitment to upholding fundamental rights and the rule of law in Türkiye.

However, 2023 was the ninth consecutive year since 2015 that LGBTI+ people have been subjected to blanket bans and restrictions on Pride events.

We call on the EU to demand Türkiye ends all arbitrary and disproportionate restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly, including the use of blanket bans, and protects participants of pride marches and other LGBTI+ events from any potential violence, as stipulated in Türkiye’s national legislation and international legal commitments.

New draft constitution

Earlier in 2023, the government proposed amendments to the Turkish Constitution on Article 41 on “protection of the family and the rights of the child.” The proposed amendment aimed to add to Article 41 that a “union of marriage can only be established between a woman and a man.” This definition of marriage explicitly discriminates against LGBTI+ people. Activists advocating for LGBTI+ rights are also concerned that such discriminatory amendments may pave the way for criminalising same-sex relationships and prohibiting LGBTI+ organisations from operating in the country.

We urge the EU to exert pressure on Türkiye to ensure that any revision of its Constitution includes a strong commitment to upholding the right to non-discrimination, in accordance with the various international treaties to which Türkiye is a party.

We call on the members of the European Parliament to reject the “Prostitution Report”. The criminalisation of any aspect of sex work further compromises vulnerable groups, increases risks of violence, and will not combat human trafficking and forced labor. This proposal isn’t the solution, we need to protect women and all sex workers. Read our joint open letter.

We, the organisations united under the European Coalition on Sex Workers’ Rights and Inclusion, call on all Members of the European Parliament to reject and to vote against the report Regulation of prostitution in the EU: its cross-border implications and impact on gender equality and women’s rights, 2022/2139(INI).

Our organisations are leading civil society networks and human rights organisations. We have decades of experience and expertise in addressing women’s rights and gender equality, human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV, harm reduction, the rights of LGBTI people, digital rights, human trafficking, migration, racial justice and criminal justice. Within these numerous fields of expertise, all 13 organisations have come to the same conclusion: criminalisation of any aspect of sex work, which is proposed by this report, does not protect the rights of women and others engaged in sex work for manifold reasons, and does not help address the very serious issue of human trafficking and forced labour. It is only by adopting a human rights-based approach, decriminalising all aspects of sex work, and meaningfully including sex workers and sex workers’ human rights defenders in decision-making, that people selling sex, including victims of sexual exploitation, can be protected and serious human rights violations against people selling sex experience can be addressed.

We consider the submitted report, which will be put to a vote in plenary on September 14, to be biased and harmful for people selling sex and other vulnerable groups for the following reasons:

• The report calls to punish sex workers’ clients (Para 9, 22, 38) and make it a criminal offence across the EU to solicit, accept or obtain a sexual act from a person in exchange for remuneration, the promise of remuneration, the provision of a benefit in kind or the promise of such a benefit (so-called Nordic model). 
• While proposing the adoption of this model of criminalising the client (introduced, for example in Sweden, France, and the Republic of Ireland), the report ignores the body of evidence^[1] on its negative impacts on human rights of people selling sex. Sex workers report increased precarity and vulnerabilities to violence and infectious diseases (including HIV) and reduced trust in authorities. Sex workers face increased stigma, barriers to accessing services and justice, and increased risks of homelessness in countries where such criminalisation is in force.
• This report ignores the fact that a similar provision is currently under review by the European Court of Human Rights for alleged violations of Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of M.A. and 261 others vs France^[2]. On August 31 2023, without ruling on the merits at this stage, the Court declared the application admissible after acknowledging that the applicants were entitled to claim to be victims, within the meaning of Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights of the alleged violation of their rights under Articles 2, 3 and 8^[3] and dismissed the Governments’ preliminary objections. The Court, in its decision acknowledges that “the applicants produce evidence tending to show that the clandestinity and isolation induced by this criminalisation increase the risks to which they are exposed” (Para 38).
• The report also denounces the effects of the legalised model (introduced in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria), but fails to consider the latest legal and policy developments such as the full decriminalisation of sex work in Belgium in 2022, which was adopted based on evidence, and recommendations of human rights organisations, UN agencies and meaningful consultation with sex workers, to better protect sex workers’ human rights and more effectively combat human trafficking.
• The report further misinterprets the findings of multiple health studies. The studies  referenced^[4] in Recital K directly contradict the call to punish clients and criminalise the purchase of sex. These calls are also opposed by numerous UN agencies, such as the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)^[5], the World Health Organization, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN Development Program (UNDP).
• The report misinterprets the definition of trafficking in human beings as set out in Article 2 of Directive 2011/36/EU. According to the report, the “consent of a victim of trafficking in human beings to the exploitation, whether intended or actual, shall be irrelevant where it is obtained through the giving or receiving of payments or benefits“. The quote, however, omits the second part of the sentence. The full text reads that the consent of the victim of trafficking is irrelevant “where it is obtained through the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person. In other words, for trafficking there must always be a third party involved who exercises one of the coercive or deceptive means for the purpose of exploiting that person. The exchange of sexual services (or any other service) between consenting adults is not trafficking. It becomes trafficking when, simply said, person A gives or receives payments or benefits to obtain the consent of person B who has control over victim C with the aim of exploiting victim C.
• The report makes further claims related to human trafficking which are not based on evidence. For example, it claims that trafficking for sexual exploitation is increasing when the latest available data^[6] published by the European Commission actually show a slight decrease in the number of identified victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the EU. It also claims that countries which have criminalised the purchase of sex (such as Sweden, Ireland, and France) are “no longer big markets” for trafficking for sexual exploitation, when this is not the case – the Eurostat data^[7], again, does not support such a conclusion.
• The report further denies a particular group of women (women who sell sex) their right to bodily autonomy (Paragraph 11, Recital C) by rendering void consent to sexual acts which involve payment or receipt of benefits. Criminalising the purchase of sex denies an entire group of people (most of whom are women) the right to make decisions about their lives. Similarly, the March 8 Principles by International Commission of Jurists (ICJ, 2023)^[8] unequivocally opposed such criminalisation due to its detrimental effects on the human rights of people selling sex. This can lead to dangerous assumption that women who sell sex, in fact, cannot be raped.
• The report further calls for the introduction of criminal sanctions against anyone who profits from prostitution (Recital AK). This proposal fails to distinguish between conduct that is exploitative, abusive, or coercive, and activity that is personal, practical, and supportive or for the purposes of safety of people selling sex. This practice leads to the criminalisation of sex workers sharing premises for safety. It is also routinely used to evict people selling sex from their homes and apartments as landlords can be criminalised for ‘profiting from prostitution’. For some EU MS, like Portugal, the proposed definition has been recognized as unconstitutional^[9].

In June, the prestigious health journal The Lancet^[10] called on you to vote against this report as it is based on false or misleading information and would be harmful to the people it claims it wants to protect. Likewise, we, as feminists and women’s rights advocates, human rights defenders, service providers, researchers, and NGOs with decades-long experience, urge you to vote against the report “Regulation of prostitution in the EU: its cross-border implications and impact on gender equality and women’s rights, 2022/2139(INI).

Brussels, September 5, 2023

Signed by

• Amnesty International
• Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
• European AIDS Treatment Group
• La Strada International
• ENAR
• The European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe)
• Transgender Europe (TGEU)
• Human Rights Watch
• International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network (IPPF EN)
• PICUM
• Correlation-European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN)
• ESWA
• AIDS Action Europe

---

^[1] Ireland: “We live within a violent system.” Structural violence against sex workers in Ireland – Amnesty International (2022), W922-0152-WPS-Policy-Paper-6-singles.pdf (lse.ac.uk) (2022), What do sex workers think about the French Prostitution Act? (hal.science) (2019), Assessment of impact criminalisation of purchasing sexual services | Department of Justice (justice-ni.gov.uk) (2019), https://www.icj.org/icj-publishes-a-new-set-of-legal-principles-to-address-the-harmful-human-rights-impact-of-unjustified-criminalization-of-individuals-and-entire-communities/ (2023)

^[2] See the preamble of the report: having regard to the ongoing communicated case 63664/19, 64450/19, 24387/20 et al. of the European Court of Human Rights of 12 April 2021, see also the case file: M. A. ET AUTRES c. FRANCE et 4 autres affaires (coe.int)

^[3] See also the Court’s decision on admissibility  M. A. AND OTHERS v. FRANCE (coe.int)

^[4] Platt, L. et al., ‘Associations between sex work laws and sex workers’ health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative studies’, PLOS Medicine, Vol. 15, No 12, 2018.,

Wong, S., ‘Decriminalising sex work would cut HIV infections by a third’, Imperial College London, 24 July 2014.

^[5] HIV and sex work — Human rights fact sheet series 2021 | UNAIDS

^[6] Trafficking in human beings statistics – Statistics Explained (europa.eu)

^[7] Statistics | Eurostat (europa.eu)

^[8]https://www.icj.org/icj-publishes-a-new-set-of-legal-principles-to-address-the-harmful-human-rights-impact-of-unjustified-criminalization-of-individuals-and-entire-communities/

^[9] Profit is not a criminal offence, judges have held that “a person’s decision to engage in prostitution may constitute a full expression of his or her sexual freedom”. And they argue that it is unconstitutional to punish with jail time those who profit from the prostitution of other persons practiced of their own volition. https://www.publico.pt/2023/05/09/sociedade/noticia/movimento-trabalhadores-sexo-elogia-decisao-tribunal-constitucional-2049084

^[10] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01179-0/fulltext

Two successful European Court cases brought against Russia underline state obligations to protect LGBTI community from violent counter demonstrators and general hate motivated violence.

ILGA-Europe welcome yesterday’s judgments from the European Court of Human Rights in Romanov and Others v Russia and Lapunov v Russia. Romanov and Others v Russia concerned Russia’s failure to prevent and protect LGBTI community members from homophobic violence during peaceful demonstrations and ensure effective investigation. The applicant in Lapunov v Russia was one of the victims of the “anti-gay purges” that took place in Chechnya in 2016-2017, having been detained and tortured in March 2017.

According to ILGA-Europe’s Head of Litigation, Arpi Avetisyan, “These cases are of great significance for the recognition of the rights of LGBTI people that have suffered by inaction or actual infliction of violence by state agents.

“Importantly, the Court observed that even when investigations were initiated, the homophobic nature of the attacks was rejected by the authorities, therefore could not be considered as effective.”

The Court found that physical and phycological treatment suffered by Mr Lapunov in Chechnya amounted to discriminatory torture under the European Convention of Human Rights. Furthermore, the authorities failed to carry out effective and meaningful investigation to uncover violence based on sexual orientation, despite all the evidence provided.

Russian LGBTI organisations, who worked to support both cases before the Court, note that although Russia has left the Council of Europe and is not party to the European Convention since March 2016, it is unlikely to implement these judgments. They are however symbolically important for persecuted people in Russia, as they give hope and a sense of support from the international community. It is crucial that state-sponsored homophobia does not go unnoticed. 

Avetisyan concluded: “These cases are another affirmation by the Court on Council of Europe member state obligations to protect LGBTI community from violent counter demonstrators and general hate motivated violence, and to ensure timely and effective investigations in such cases.”