European institutions make commitments to fight discrimination against trans people
MEDIA RELEASE by ILGA Europe
28 October 2009
For immediate release
European institutions make commitments to fight discrimination against trans people
Today the “Trans Rights Conference: Putting Trans Rights on the European Agenda” was held by ILGA-Europe and Transgender Europe as a pre-conference to ILGA-Europe’s 13th Annual Conference starting tomorrow.
This conference was intended to bring together European and national stake holders in a direct dialogue with trans and LGBT activists from across Europe. This was the first conference to exclusively driven towards good practices in policy and legal developments.
Strong commitments were made by Belinda Pyke from the European Commission, Israel Butler from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, Mandana Zarrehparvar from EQUINET and Dennis van der Veur from the Council of Europe to advance the rights of trans people through their work.
The European Commission will be looking at the way EU member state implemented the 2004 gender equality directive vis-à-vis trans people in its 2010 report. It will also be publishing its first trans specific legal and policy mapping study.
The Council of Europe will be mirroring the Fundamental Rights Agency’s report on homophobia and transphobia in the EU in its 20 member states which are not members of the European Union. Additionally, the Commission for Human Rights will keep raising the issues around transgender human dignity and human rights in his country visits.
The Fundamental Rights Agency will be updating its transgender fact sheet during 2010, while keeping up its awareness raising around the findings of its report on homophobia and transphobia.
Finally, the EQUINET, the European network of equality bodies, will issue an Opinion-Statement on the gap in anti-discrimination legislation with regards to trans people and will address the lack of mandate of the equality bodies in some EU member states in dealing with trans issues.
At the end of the conference a declaration on the rights of trans people was read, debated and approved. This declaration will now pass to the ILGA-Europe’s annual conference and Transgender Europe for their approval and once approved should inform the joint work of the two organisations in the coming years.
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For more information please contact
Juris Lavrikovs at + 32 496 708 375
Notes for editors:
(1) ILGA-Europe is the European Region of ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association and works for equality and human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans & intersex people in Europe: www.ilga-europe.org
(2) Transgender Europe is the European network of trans and other organisations that support or work for the rights of transgender/transsexual/gender variant people and like minded individuals: www.tgeu.org
(3) More information about the Annual Conference in Malta is available on our website: www.ilga-europe.org/conference
Juris Lavrikovs Communications Manager tel.: + 32 2 609 54 16 mob.: + 32 496 708 375