After several years of advocacy, in 2021 feminist initiatives in Kazakhstan managed to abolish the list of banned professions for women – a Soviet Union legacy Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries had adopted. They have published a book sharing their experience of fight against this discriminatory practice. The list of banned professions included hundreds of occupations which women could not pursue as a profession. Queer women were at the core of fight in making the case for this advocacy work. Uzbekistan is another Central Asian country that had abolished the similar list. Following Kazakhstan’s success there are now initiatives across the region to terminate this discriminatory practice.

On 7 December, the European Commission published a proposal for a Council Regulation on recognition of parenthood, which sets out the full recognition of parenthood for cross-border movement within the EU, while ensuring every child’s fundamental rights are fully protected everywhere in the EU. According to ILGA-Europe and NELFA, this is a major step forward for bringing legal security for children in cross-border situations to have their family life protected and having both their parents recognised across the EU. Currently, many children, including children of LGBTI parents, ‘lose one parent’ when crossing a border because of parenthood not being recognised.

On 16 December, the Agency on Information and Mass Media of Uzbekistan published a Draft of the Information Code for public discussions. Article 54 of the Code prohibits abuse of freedom of Mass Media Means. This norm prohibits any “propaganda of unnatural relations between people of same sex”. This restriction is being proposed in addition to already existing criminalisation of consensual sexual conduct between men, for which LGBTI people have been prosecuted and detained.

On World AIDS Day, ILGA-Europe shared a blog post about what governments need to do to make PReP available for all. Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is the ambitious goal set by the United Nations eight years ago, to which EU countries committed along with many others. PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is a vital component of this plan. The blog lists some key recommendations for governments in order to make PrEP available to everyone who might benefit from it, following the research by UNAIDS and AIDS Action Europe.

The University of Leicester’s Leicester Law School has a new funding opportunity for a PhD project on ‘conversion therapy’ in international human rights framework. The project aims to identify and chart the rapidly developing international human rights norms and standards that have been recognised as being applicable to conversion therapy. Looking across the various relevant international and regional human rights instruments, the project will set out the relevant standards that have so far been adopted with respect to the practice.

On 1 December, the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgement in the case of A.D. and others v. Georgia. The Court found a violation of Article 8 (right to respect to private and family life) due to lack of clear framework in domestic legislation governing legal gender recognition procedure (LGR). The Court reiterated that this is in contradiction of states’ positive obligation to provide quick, transparent and accessible procedures for LGR. In light of the judgement, ILGA-Europe called on the Georgian authorities to put in place a clear legal framework allowing for quick, transparent and accessible procedures for LGR in collaboration and coordination with national LGBTI groups.

RFSL, the Swedish Federation for LGBTQI rights, is currently accepting grant applications to support initiatives, groups and organisations, focusing on the unique needs of trans, non-binary and gender-diverse rights movements from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In addition to funding, grantees are offered capacity strengthening, professional development opportunities, advocacy mentorship and assistance in organisational development. Maximum grant amount for the call is 7300 Euros.
Read more and apply before 8 January.