Lobby your government

What can you do?

We need everyone to call on their decision-makers and governments to support the horizontal directive.

This can be done by writing to your head of government or head of state (President, Prime Minister, or Chancellor) and to the minister responsible for social affairs and equal opportunities in your country to

• Call on your government to support a proposal for a new Directive that covers discrimination based on sexual orientation, along with the grounds of age, disability, religion and belief, in areas outside employment.

• Remind your government that there is extensive evidence of discrimination based on sexual orientation in areas outside employment

• Remind your government that it has an obligation under international human rights law to ensure enjoyment of all human rights without discrimination

You can also request contact the ministry responsible for social affairs and equal opportunities and request meetings where appropriate to find out about your government’s position and to establish a dialogue with your ministry on the content of the directive. It is important to know about Member States’ concerns with the text and to be ready to discuss them if we want to reach an agreement.

Think about coalitions with your colleagues from NGOs working on other grounds of discrimination, from human rights organisations, trades unions and equality bodies.

Remember that EU member states have made commitments which they should fulfil. For more information about States’ human rights obligations and other commitments, please refer to the following document: “ Briefing Note 1 – Legal Obligations and Political Commitments”.