Conference declarations
During the final plenary session the annual conference approved two declarations on the proposed EU anti-discrimination directive.
Declaration from ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference
2 November 2008
We the delegates of the 12th Annual Conference of ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, coming from over 35 countries, want to express our broad support for the European Commission proposal for directive on the principle of equal treatment outside employment for the grounds of age, disability, religion and belief and sexual orientation.
We welcome the strong support demonstrated by the French Presidency of the European Union for this much-needed piece of legislation.
We are however concerned that recent developments in the French Senate may undermine the positive work undertaken by the French Presidency on this initiative.
As representatives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisations from across Europe who work with people who experience discrimination on a daily basis because of their sexual orientation, their gender identity or their gender expression, we want to reiterate the need for this groundbreaking legislation which will ensure that each person in the EU is guaranteed legal protection against these forms of discrimination.
Therefore, we extend our support to the French Presidency in continuing to play a leadership role in making sure that we do not lose on this historical opportunity to put an end to the hierarchy of rights in the EU.
Declaration from ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference
2 November 2008
We the delegates of the 12th Annual Conference of ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, coming from over 35 countries, want to express our broad support for the European Commission proposal for directive on the principle of equal treatment outside employment for the grounds of age, disability, religion and belief and sexual orientation.
We want to express our concerns with Germany’s position on this much-needed piece of legislation.
As representatives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisations from across Europe who work with people who experience discrimination because of their sexual orientation, we witness on a daily basis the detrimental consequences of the lack of legal protection on the different grounds of discrimination and in particular on sexual orientation.
In many of our countries, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is unfortunately seen by many to be “socially acceptable”. For us, legislation is an indispensable pre-condition to address the discrimination that LGBT people experience in our countries.
Therefore, we urge the German government not to prevent this historical opportunity to ensure that each person is protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation, age, disability and religion or belief, and to send an unequivocal message that the time when some grounds of discrimination were more acceptable than others need to come to an end.
