Council of Europe : a progress inspired by the European Humanist Federation

Earlier this year, the European Humanist Federation, in cooperation with other civil society organisations, took the lead to prevent a powerful traditionalist and anti-choice faith-based organisation (ADF) from acquiring participatory status at the Council of Europe.

Now, inspired by the EHF, Belgian MPs (Christophe Lacroix and Patrick Prevot)  seek to follow up on this success with a systematic policy.

They propose a resolution on the defence of LGBTQI people’s rights within the Council of Europe (CoE) at the Chamber of Representatives, the Lower House of the Belgian Federal Parliament.

This resolution proposal calls for the Belgian Federal Government to fight discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity at the CoE Committee of Ministers. In particular, it requests the government to counter the grant of participatory status to non-state organisations in contradiction with the values of the Council of Europe, in particular the equality and dignity of all human beings, including LGBTQI people, and the full enjoyment of their rights.

It also calls upon all members of the Belgian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly to treat LGBTQI persons’ rights as a priority issue.

We are happy to see that our outreach efforts result in such policy initiative. We support evidently the adoption of this resolution and look forward to its effective implementation. The EHF invites other national delegations in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to do the same.