European Union countries sign agreement for LGBTIQ+ rights | News

Ministers responsible for the rights and protection of LGBTIQ+ people from the European Union (EU) signed a declaration on Wednesday with "the aim of promoting progress in the rights of LGBTIQ+ people in the European space."

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The authorities of Spain, which assumes the presidency of the Council of the EU, signed this document along with 15 other member states: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.

In this regard, the Minister for Equality of the Government of Spain, Irene Montero, said that this protocol is "to guarantee the right to gender self-determination of all trans people without pathologizing criteria, prohibit surgical genital reassignment of intersex boys and girls and promote the decriminalization of the LGTBIQ reality throughout the international arena.”

The Spanish minister also pointed out that the signatory countries undertake to continue "promoting, through international dialogue and the elaboration of concrete public policies, progress in LGTBIQ rights throughout the EU and that this is a safe, free territory with guarantees of rights for all, all and all”.

Other aspects pointed out by Irene Montero address the right to filiation of lesbian or bisexual women, that is, the right to exercise maternity and the legal relationship of kinship that exists between two people, in this case mothers, sons and daughters.

Likewise, the possibility of reinforcing financial support for international civil society organizations that defend LGTBIQ+ rights and for a real supervision of the right to non-discrimination is recognized.

"To foster the cooperation of the Member States and for a Commission that integrates and promotes equality and non-discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and sexual characteristics through cross-cutting European policies".

Some points of the agreement

The call to the EU member states, according to the document, focuses, among other things, on offering comprehensive education on sexuality and relationships to all youth, based on a perspective of gender equality and sexual, gender and family diversity. .

Similarly, it stresses that it guarantees "the legal recognition of the gender in accordance with non-pathologizing criteria and through a procedure based on the principle of self-determination."

Likewise, the decriminalization of homosexuality and transsexuality in the international arena is promoted; support civil society organizations and human rights defenders who defend the rights of LGBTIQ people at national and European level.

The text also seeks to prohibit and prosecute what are known as "conversion practices" of sexual orientation or gender identity, which can cause serious psychological and physical damage to their victims and, in some cases, may constitute torture.

Figures that show violence against LGBTIQ+ people

According to the Observatory against Homophobia in Spain, in the first six months of this year there have been 152 incidents due to LGTBI-phobia, seven percent more than in the same period in 2022.

For his part, the spokesperson for the Observatory, Eugeni Rodríguez, said on June 28 on the Ara platform "that the group of trans people is where the incidence of these attacks is greatest and that, in terms of places with the greatest risk they continue to be "leisure spaces" such as discos and festive events”.

According to data collected by Transgender Europe in its Murdered Trans People Observatory, between 2008 and September 2022, 4,369 transsexual people were murdered around the world due to discriminatory prejudices.

On the other hand, in 11 countries the death penalty is still exercised for homosexual and bisexual people, while around 68 nations prohibit sexual relations between people of the same gender.