OBESSU welcomes LGBTI equality strategy
In February 2014, the European Parliament adopted the Resolution on the EU Roadmap against homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity (better known as the “Lunacek report”).
OBESSU was glad to see this initiative, in particular its focus on education, and therefore wrote a positive reaction to the report, together with our partner organisation IGLYO.
On the 7th of December, as a follow-up to the report, the Commissioner for Justice and Gender Equality Věra Jourová presented a list of actions which the Commission will do to advance LGBTI rights in the EU.
As was the case with the European Parliament report, OBESSU is happy to see that education is given the attention it deserves. Concretely, the list includes “Completing the EU level gap in protection against discrimination as regards education, social protection and access to goods and services”, hopefully to be achieved by 2019. This will be done by extending the Equal Treatment Directive to also include the area of education.
The Commission will also “support Member States through the organisation of a best practice exchange on LGBTI anti-discrimination actions in education and homo and transphobic school bullying, safe school environments and diversity lessons at school” and also “present, promote and disseminate existing guidelines and successful experiences on these matters and will publish a report for wide dissemination”. The topic of safe school environments and homo- and transphobic bullying is a very important topic to OBESSU; in the 2014 Study Session, “Standing together: action and advocacy against bullying”, held together with IGLYO, we explored these topics and discussed possible solutions. Unfortunately there is no easy quick-fix to the problems, but OBESSU is glad to see that the Commission is bringing up the topic and including it in its list of action. At this point it is hard to see exactly what will be the outcome of the best practice exchange and the report. OBESSU strongly encourages the Commission to take the problem seriously and to invest as much energy and resources as will be needed into it.
The list of action also mentions that “Support to projects related to equity, diversity and anti-discrimination (including of LGBTI) within education and training are funded as part of the Erasmus + programme covering education, training and youth”. The right to a safe and inclusive learning environment for each student disregarding his_her sexual orientation or gender identity is an extremely important part of any education system. OBESSU therefore welcomes this fact.
Finally, whichever actions the Commission decides to carry out, OBESSU encourages the Commission to consult civil society organisations such as OBESSU and IGLYO, who have plenty of experience in working on the topic.
For more information, please get in contact with board@obessu.org.
