Rainbow Europe

Our Rainbow Map & Index is an annual benchmarking tool, ranking 49 countries in Europe on their LGBTI equality laws and policies.

Our Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Europe and Central Asia tells the story of what has happened during the previous year in all European countries represented on the map, and in Central Asia.

Both elements of our Rainbow Europe package complement each other, giving both the legal and narrative overviews. Currently the countries of Central Asia are not part of the legal indexing for our Rainbow Map.

Our Annual Review is published at the beginning of each year, usually in February. It documents legal, political and social developments in 54 countries of Europe and Central Asia and four European institutions over the previous calendar year. It is a unique report tracking key positive and negative trends in relation to LGBTI equality and human rights in the region.

The publication of the Annual Review is followed in May by the Rainbow Europe Map & Index, which is published to mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT – May 17). The findings of the Annual Review are a narrative underpinning to the findings of the Rainbow Map.

The Rainbow Map ranks all 49 European countries on a scale between zero and 100 percent. Zero percent means gross violations of human rights and discrimination — while 100 percent entails full respect for human rights and full equality. We rank the countries based on laws and policies that directly impact LGBTI people’s human rights under seven categories: equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space, and asylum.

Our Rainbow Europe package provides insights into the political and social developments taking place in each European country — alongside a sense of what everyday life is like for LGBTI people. Rainbow Europe also makes it easier to keep up to date with the latest developments affecting LGBTI rights.

How the Rainbow Europe Module Helps

The Rainbow Europe module is a website designed to help policymakers, journalists, NGO’s, researchers and students do their jobs in more straightforward ways. It lets people filter the map based on different themes, download reference materials for free and compare a particular country’s standing with the European average. It also provides a user-friendly navigation of our Annual Review across countries, institutions and themes. 

One of the major benefits of the web module is its flexibility: it can be updated on demand to reflect the latest legislative and policy changes. ILGA-Europe constantly monitors the legal and policy status for LGBTI people with the help of our member organisations; we work with a team of national experts to validate all the relevant data. 


Visit our Rainbow Europe module here.