Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe express concern at the use of homophobic language by Moldovan members of parliament
A written declaration was tabled by Danish delegate, Mogens Jensen. He had tabled a similar Declaration during the April session.
The leader of the Moldovan Delegation to the Assembly, Ms Ana Gutu, had responded, also in the April session, with her own Declaration claiming that there had been no such homophobic speech by Moldovan MPs, and that Assembly members "had been misled into signing a baseless declaration, thus becoming accomplices in spreading lies which damage unjustifiably the image of a member state of the Council of Europe". Mogens Jensen's second Declaration was accompanied by a report prepared by GenderDoc-M and ILGA-Europe detailing the language in question, which was circulated to many members of the Assembly. This seems to have ended the debate.
ILGA-Europe is working on establishing an informal network of pro-LGBT delegates to the Assembly, with a view to increasing the effectiveness of advocacy in that forum. We are looking for further members, particularly from centre and right of centre parties, to play an active role, and would welcome suggestions -- especially of MPs who have played a leading role in pushing forward LGBT rights in their national parliament.
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The texts of the Written Declaration can be found here.
The members of national delegations to the Assembly can be found here.
