ILGA-Europe
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Do you want to work with LGBTI issues and be responsible for coordinating capacity building / advocacy projects at regional and pan-European level for an international non-governmental organisation based in Brussels? Have a look here for a challenging and exciting job opportunity. Closing date for receipt of applications: Friday 6 July 2012 (17.00 CET)
Read more about the job opportunity here
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On 14-16 June 2012 ILGA-Europe organised 3rd Solidarity and Networking Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey which hosted around 30 participants from Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Turkey. This year’s event included a 2 day interactive training on Advocacy and a one day session on Hate crimes –legal framework and documentation.
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You can now download two publications from ILGA-Europe: Human Rights and Gender Identity: Best Practice Catalogue (written in co-operation with Transgender Europe) and a Turkish translation of "Make It Work: Six steps to effective LGBT human rights advocacy".
Read more and download the two publications here
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ILGA-Europe supports a joint statement led by the Open Society Institute on "Strengthening the Protection of Human Rights in Europe" which is calling for a reform and a strengthening of the European Court of Human Rights.
Read more about the statement here
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Asylum
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The report from consists of a comparative analysis of law, policies and practice relating to gender issues across nine EU Member States (Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and recommendations towards integrating a gender perspective in European asylum systems.
Read more about the publication here
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Bias motivated violence
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The Maltese Parliament adopted a bill which extends the scope of the hate crime legislation from race and creed to also include sexual orientation and gender identity.
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The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe expressed their concern about recent events in Armenia, involving leading political figures openly condoning homophobic violence.
Read the statement here
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On the second day of the Side by Side LGBT Film Festival in Novosibirsk, Russia, organisers and audience came under serious threat from a homophobic mob of aggressive youths. Due to inadequate police protection the organisers therefore chose to cancel the last day of the festival for security reasons.
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Data collection
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A survey carried out in 32 high schools in Montenegro showed that 46% of students interviewed thinks that homosexuality is a disease, 45.92% of students interviewed don’t agree with the claim that homosexuals have the right to express their sexual orientation and 35.36% of students interviewed think that the state should work on repelling of homosexuality.
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Education
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UNESCO’s Section of HIV and Health Education recently published the publication The Good Policy and Practice in HIV and Health Education Series - Booklet 8: Education Sector Responses to Homophobic Bullying.
Read more the new publication here
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Employment
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The study ‘Talent to Change for’ by Workplace Pride reports exclusion of LGBT employees like the inability to come out at work, homophobia and transphobia, lack of visibility, exclusion from international mobility and harassment.
Read more about the new reseach here
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Equality and non-discrimination
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The European Commission has just published a report focusing exclusively on the situation of trans and intersex people, a first of its kind by any international institution.
Read more about the new publication here
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The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality remit which previously covered only gender in all spheres and race outside of employment has now been significantly expanded to include not just sexual orientation and gender identity but also religion and age.
Read more about the development in Malta here
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Statement from Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights, on the so-called "propaganda laws" and hate-speech/violence. The Commissioner is moreover calling the States to "keep or drive LGBTI issues back into the closet, states must fulfill their human rights obligations to all and help counter public prejudice."
Read the statement from the Commissioner here
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Family
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After being the first country in the world to introduce registered partnership in 1989, the Danish Parliament with a vast majority passed a gender neutral marriage legislation on 7 June, which came into force 15 June 2012.
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Malta is joining in the shift in attitude that has spread over Europe in accepting the reality of same-sex families. A recent survey found that 60% of 18- to 34-year-olds agreed with the introduction of marriage equality.
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An administrative court in Estonia has ruled against a decision by a local authority which had denied issuing a civil status certificate to an Estonian citizen who wished to enter a same-sex marriage abroad.
Read more about the ruling here
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According to a poll a majority of Scots think that same-sex couples should have the right to marry. A majority also think that religious organisations should be able to decide whether to conduct same-sex marriages.
Read more about the poll results here
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The Lithuanian Parliament came very close to passing a constitutional amendment equating family with marriage and parenthood, an initiative seen by many as discriminatory against unwed partners and same-sex couples.
Read more about the voting here
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First prize in the 2011 EU Journalist Award 'Together against discrimination' was awarded to Margus Haav from Estonia for his article "How to find the one and only Maria" which focuses on the problems that can occur when same-sex couples are not recognised.
Read more about the winner here
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Freedom of assembly
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A local court in St Petersburg ruled the recent bans of peaceful LGBT demonstrations on the grounds of the "propaganda law" as unlawful.
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The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has according to the Sofia Pride organisers silently endorsed violence against the LGBT Pride March after a priest from the provincial town of Sliven called for the stoning of participants.
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Hundreds of people in the Croatian city of Split marched in a Pride parade under heavy security to avoid a repeat of last year's violence. About 500 people, including some government ministers, took part in the march, police said, with around 900 policemen patrolling it.
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The Moscow City Court upheld a district court’s decision to ban LGBT pride events in Moscow for the next 100 years.
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This year the Baltic Pride successfully took place in Riga, Latvia. During the last years, the Baltic Pride was one of a few problematic Pride events in the European Union and was accompanied by a number of attempts by the authorities in Latvia and Lithuania to ban the event as well as violent attacks and mass scale protests by the opponents of the human rights of LGBTI people.
Read more about Baltic Pride 2012 here
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Freedom of expression
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Navi Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nation, expressed her concern about the so-called "propaganda laws" in Ukraine, Moldova and Russia and in her opening speech at the Human Rights Council 20th Special Session in Geneva.
Read the High Commissioner's speech here
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Three Ukrainian LGBT organisations are calling for action by organising “Stop Homophobia in Ukraine” demonstrations in front of embassies of Ukraine on 2 July or 3 July.
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Lithuanian MPs has proposed to enshrin in the Constitution a provision that "family is the result of marriage and parenthood. The propagation of homosexual relations is banned. Homosexual individuals must not adopt children."
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Legal gender recognition
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On June 11th the Icelandic Parliament, Althingi, unanimously adopted a new comprehensive ‘Law on legal status of individuals with Gender Identity Disorder‘. The new law was first and foremost meant to amend administrative procedures, to improve practices regarding sex reassignment surgeries and to improve procedures regarding name change and registration with the National Registry.
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Notice board
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Working with the Legal team, the Lawyer will develop and implement Interights’ thematic work in the Europe region with primary focus on the South Caucasus, in order to advance the legal protection of international human rights through strategic litigation and other means of legal intervention. Deadline: 25 June 2012.
Read more about the job opportunity here
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The Head of Operations will lead and manage the Operations Unit by defining and monitoring progress in reaching the expected results, ensuring the delivery of outputs and outcomes agreed upon in the Institute’s work programme. Deadline: 16 July 2012 at 23:00 Eastern European Time.
Read more about the job opportunity here
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The EU is recurrently criticised for not having been able to distance itself sufficiently from its roots in economic integration. Both academic and popular discourses promote the idea that the EU consistently favours market values over social concerns and human rights. The current economic and monetary crisis and the way EU institutions and leaders have dealt with it, have strengthened this common perception. To what extent these discourses hold some truth in them is, however, contentious. Is the EU truly an organisation that lacks humaneness, in the sense of compassion and sympathy for those affected? In this workshop, this question will be explored by analysing how well the balance between economic/corporate and social/human interests has been struck in different EU policy fields.
Read more about the conference here
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Call for applications for a training and development programme, aimed at LGBT and cultural organisations in Europe. LGBT History Month is an international celebration of LGBT life and culture which takes place every February. The event is a part of a 2 year project and the organisers are looking for new LGBT NGOs to join in spreading the international reach of LGBT History Month. Organisations within the 27 EU member states are invited to send their application. These organisations will take part in a week long training programme, with further development actions to be carried out in their own countries in the run up to February 2013.Deadline for applications: Friday, 29th June, 2012
Read more about the event here
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The Council of Europe have a section solely about LGBT issues on their website. ILGA-Europe is recommending to check out this useful section, and is calling our member organisations and others to include a link on websites in order to promote the important work from Council of Europe.
Check out the CoE LGBT section here
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