U.N. panel cuts gay reference from violence measure

Western delegations expressed disappointment in the human rights committee’s vote to remove the reference to slayings due to sexual orientation from the resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.

“The subject of this amendment — the need for prompt and thorough investigations of all killing, including those committed for … sexual orientation — exists in this resolution simply because it is a continuing cause for concern,” a British statement to the committee said.

The General Assembly passes a resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings every two years. The 2008 declaration included an explicit reference to killings committed because of the victims’ sexual preferences.

But this year, Morocco and Mali introduced an amendment on behalf of African and Islamic nations that called for deleting the words “sexual orientation” and replacing them with “discriminatory reasons on any basis.”

That amendment narrowly passed 79-70. The resolution then was approved by the committee, which includes all 192 U.N. member states, with 165 in favor, 10 abstentions and no votes against.

The U.S. delegation voted against the deletion but abstained from the vote on the final resolution. Diplomats said the U.S. delegation also voiced disappointment at the decision to remove the reference to sexual orientation.

The resolution, which is expected to be formally adopted by the General Assembly in December, specifies many other types of violence, including killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and killings of refugees, indigenous people and other groups.

“It’s a step backwards and it’s extremely disappointing that some countries felt the need to remove the reference to sexual orientation, when sexual orientation is the very reason why so many people around the world have been subjected to violence,” said Philippe Bolopion of Human Rights Watch.

LGBT workshop at Spring Agora 2010 in Leiden

During the Spring Agora 2010 in Leiden, a workshop was organised about LGBT rights. Despite the sunny weather and the lack of sleep, approximately 20 AEGEE members from all over the network participated.

At the start of the workshop, the participants were informed about the origins of the idea of ‘Love Goes Beyond Tradition’. They were told about the event in Budapest, which had taken place just 3 weeks prior to the Agora. The main results and the programme were explained.

After a couple of examples of the LGBT rights situation across Europe, and an introduction to the 4 main approaches that politicians use in dealing with LGBT rights, it was time for the participants to become active. In a highly-interactive session, they debated 3 statements about LGBT rights.

The first statement was about child adoption by same-sex couples and was debated in teams. Each team either had to argue in favour or against the statement, which meant that some participants had to argue against their personal opinion. This proved to be a very good exercise in debating skills. Furthermore, the participants appreciated the fact that they had to put themselves in other people’s shoes.

Following the discussion about child adoption by same-sex couples, 2 more statements were debated. The participants no longer had to argue according to the ‘team opinion’, but according to their own. Firstly, the place of LGBTs in the Christian religion was debated. This was followed by the idea of legalising same-sex marriage.

After the debates, the jury decided on the winner. In fact, a member of AEGEE-Toulouse and a member of AEGEE-Enschede had to share the price, as the jury thought their debating skills were equally outstanding.

Finally, the participants were informed about the workshop organisers’ desire to continue the discussion about LGBT rights within AEGEE. Most of them showed a lot of enthusiasm and were willing to become involved in the topic. After the Agora, they were contacted by the organisers, received a lot of information about the subject and were asked to share their ideas, opinions, and initiatives. Hopefully, they will take the lead and create a lot of interesting events in the future.

LGBT event has finished successfully

Short overview of the LGBT event

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Open events for public

Church bows to gays seeking communion

(Source: NRC.nl)

Homosexuals can now attend communion in all parishes in the diocese of Den Bosch.

This is the outcome of a meeting between the church council of the main Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands, St. John’s Cathedral in Den Bosch, priest Geertjan Van Rossum, Vera Bergkamp of the gay organisation COC and editor-in-chief of the gay peridocial Gaykrant.
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“People should decide for themselves whether or not to attend communion whatever their sexuality and should do so with a clean conscience,” said a spokesperson for the diocese.

The openly gay Prince of the Carnival who was recently refused communion in the provincial town of Reusel therefore should have received it. The church’s refusal to give him communion sparked protests at Roman Catholic church services up and down the Netherlands on Sunday.

During the protest, gay rights demonstrators dressed in pink and wearing wigs of the same colour walked out of the service at St. John’s after priest Geertjan van Rossum said “the correct experience of sexuality is part of the ten commandments”.

Gay organisations COC and the ‘Friends of Gaykrant’ are pleased with the “reconciliatory words” from the church council. Bergkamp said, “The discussion has been initiated. The church council has indicated it wants a long-term contact.”

The church council has called on demonstrators not to protest in church by wearing pink triangles or calling out slogans. The gay organisations have decided not to continue their Sunday mass protests. They hope their supporters will follow suit.

Netherlands gay protest over Catholic communion snub

(Source: BBC.co.uk)

Hundreds of Dutch activists have staged a protest at a Mass over the Roman Catholic policy of denying communion to practising homosexuals.

On this occasion, the church, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, had already decided not to serve communion, so the protesters left, shouting and singing.

The dispute began earlier this month when a priest in a nearby town refused communion to an openly gay man.

The Netherlands was the first country to introduce gay marriage in 2001.

There is widespread support in the Netherlands for gay rights, but the Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexual activity is sinful.

It holds that someone “conscious of grave sin” should not receive communion unless they have confessed their sin.

This dispute began during Dutch carnival celebrations earlier in February, when the man chosen to be carnival prince in nearby Reusel was refused communion because of his open homosexuality.

The refusal offended many in the local community.

The Sint-Jan church in the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, also known as Den Bosch, was prepared for the protest and so decided not to give out Holy Communion during Sunday Mass.

Several hundred demonstrators, dressed in pink wigs and clothes, left the church in protest.

The man at the centre of the row has said he wants equal treatment – if he is regarded as a sinner, he wants the priest to refuse communion to all other sinners too.

Organizers

Dora Preszeller, AEGEE-Szombathely
External Relations Responsible

My name is Dora Preszeller and I am 25 years old. I finished the university last year and I studied International Relations and European Studies. I work as a volunteer for AEGEE since 2004 and organized several events. I was an assistant at the Equality Department, Ministry of Social Affairs when I started to work on the project of Love Goes Beyond Tradition. I was one of the writers of the application of Youth in Action. I really hope this is a great opportunity to combat prejudices on LGBT people and create more tolerance within the group and our participants will feel the real AEGEE spirit in a beautiful city in the heart of Europe.

Annamaria Nemeth, AEGEE-Budapest
Main Local Coordinator

My name is Annamaria. I am 20 years old and member of AEGEE-Budapest. I study business administration and management at the Corvinus University of Budapest. As for free time, I like dancing salsa, skiing, meeting friends, watching films and travelling. Since I joined AEGEE about a year ago, I have been actively participating in and organising events. Currently, I am the main local coordinator of this project. I joined LGBT Team, because I felt I have enough time and enthusiasm to be more active in AEGEE. Also, I like working and having fun in an international environment and this project gives me the opportunity to meet new people, gain experiences and learn a lot. If I take a look at the program, I have to say we will have a busy, but interesting week with lots of fun! See you soon!

Galina Khrabrova, AEGEE-Sankt-Petersburg
HR Responsible

My name is Galya, I’m 21 and I’m a member of AEGEE-Sankt-Petersburg since 2009. As you see I’m very young member, that’s why I’m not very much experienced in AEGEE but I try to gain experience in all possible ways. And when I saw an open-call in AEGEE-L for organizers of LGBT-event I didn’t hesitate and decided to join the project team because in spite of being a chance to gain experience in AEGEE at the European level it’s a great opportunity to raise awareness about LGBT rights among AEGEE-society. I’m interested in this topic because I have many LGBT friends, that’s why I know how bad is the situation with LGBT rights and also I know many cases of intolerant attitude towards LGBT people. I’m talking about the situation in Russia and I really want to know how it is in other countries, but the most valuable for me are people’s opinions and thoughts concerning this topic.

Tina Sojat, AEGEE-Zagreb

My name is Tina Sojat, I am 29 years old and member of AEGEE Zagreb since 2007. I live in Vienna where I study medicine in my final year. Besides university I am involved in reproductive health issues like sexually transmitted infections incl. HIV/AIDS, sexuality, gender, female genital mutilation, LGBTQ, cancer awareness, stigma and discrimination and for last 4 years volunteering as peer educator, organiser of educational events, advocate and campaigner.

Rikkert Füss, AEGEE-Rotterdam
Secretary

My name is Rikkert Füss (28 by the time the event takes place) and I’ve been an AEGEE-Rotterdam member since 2001. Yes I know it sounds like centuries ago, but I’ve kind of started my second AEGEE life since writing an e-mail to HRWG-L on LGBT rights about 1 year ago. I felt that AEGEE needed to speak out on this topic, rather than remaining silent, as it has been over the past years. Apart from a very small number of local events, LGBT rights still seem to be a taboo. I want to understand why and to hear various opinions on the issue. The increasing aggression towards homosexuals in Amsterdam shows that prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination and hatred exist everywhere around our continent and made me wonder even more why it is that some people don’t like others because of their sexual orientation.

Viktor Gerasimovski, AEGEE-Skopje
PR Responsible

I joined this awesome team in order to help in breaking down the negative images we have about people with non heterosexual orientation and to draw the importance of increasing the awareness concerning LGBT’s human rights. I will be facilitating the workshop on stereotypes where we will have the chance to speak openly about stereotypes in general, how and why we create them, stereotypes on LGBT people and negative stereotyping, through highly interactive exercises but also interesting games, videos and debates. Together we are going to discover the myths and realities about stereotyping and stereotyping lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. I wish you pleasant and productive week!

If you want to contact us, drop an email to aegee.lgbt@gmail.com

Hostel Information

Maverick Hostel Budapest

Address: 1051 Budapest, Ferenciek tere 2.
Phone: +36 1 2673166
For further infos, like photos, etc, check the website of the hostel!
http://www.maverickhostel.com/eng/index.php

How can you get to the hostel when you arrive?

Public transportation

From the railway stations

Keleti pályaudvar
Take bus 7 to Ferenciek tere or the red metro to Deák tér and change to the blue metro to Ferenciek tere

Nyugati pályaudvar
Take the blue metro to Ferenciek tere

Déli pályaudvar
Take the red metro to Deák tér, than change to the blue metro to Ferenciek tere

From the airport

Terminal 1
You can take a regular train to Nyugati, and than the blue metro to Ferenciek tere.
Or you can take bus 200E to Kőbánya Kispest Metro Station, than take the blue metro to Ferenciek tere

Terminal 2
Take bus 200E to Kőbánya Kispest Metro Station, than take the blue metro to Ferenciek tere

Taxi

You can also take a taxi. The rates are fix from the airport to the centre – it will cost you about 4500 HUF. Taxis can be found in front of the airport.

Airport pick up is also available.

When you arrive to Ferenciek tere look for the statue and the church. From the church start walking towards the bridge and the entrance of our building will be behind the bus stop, just next to the flower shop.

How can you get to the hostel from Budapest during the event?

Public transport

The following vehicles stop close to the hostel:

Buses 7, 78, 8, 112, 15, 5, several night buses

Metro 2 (blue line)

Tram 2

We advice you buying single tickets for public transport. You can buy them at metro stations and at some kiosks before 20:00 for 320 HUF. You can also buy a ticket on the airport bus (200E) from the bus driver for 400 HUF. Be careful, every time you change, you have to use another ticket!

When you arrive at the hostel, we provide you a weekly ticket for public transportation.

For more information about Budapest’s public transportation:http://www.bkv.hu/english/home/index.html

News

Yesterday, the plenary session of the European Parliament adopted reports on the accession to the European Union for Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. All three reports call on candidate countries to provide genuine protection to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender minorities, and remind candidate countries that the protection of all minorities is a non-negotiable condition to access the European Union.

The report on Croatia conveys the European Parliament’s concern about the 2009 de facto ban on Zagreb Pride, and calls on the Government to effectively implement and enforce protection against discrimination.

The report on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia expresses the European Parliament’s regret that the proposed new anti-discrimination legislation does not cover sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds of discrimination, and calls on the Government to bring their anti-discrimination legislation in line with EU standards.

Finally, the European Commission’s progress report on Turkey’s accession points to the shortcomings of the Turkish penal code, allowing for the systematic persecution of LGBT minorities and the limitation of their freedom of assembly.

Ulrike Lunacek MEP, Co-president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights, commented: “I am happy that our amendments in favour of LGBT rights in the progress reports for Macedonia and Croatia were adopted by the European Parliament. We have reaffirmed that anti-discrimination standards must apply in candidate countries, and Štefan Füle, Commissioner for Enlargement, has assured us of his support on this issue. We count on the Commission’s work in this area to make sure fundamental rights are respected in the European region.”

Michael Cashman MEP, Co-president of the Intergroup on LGBT Rights, commented: “Accession criteria are crystal clear: minorities must be protected from discrimination as laid out in Article 19 of the Treaty—and that includes sexual orientation. This is not an à la carte menu: it is at the core of the European Union, and we will be rigorous in its application.”

source: http://lgbt-ep.eu/news.php/

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