Representatives of UPO “Gay Alliance Ukraine” visited ILGA-Europe’s International Conference in Zagreb
On 24-26 October, 2013 ILGA-Europe, the European Region branch of the international network ILGA, the organization advocating for LGBT rights around the world, held its 17th Annual Conference. The Conference took place in Zagreb and became the biggest event in the political life of LGBT people in Europe. It was attended by 290 delegates from 40 countries including president and vice president of UPO "Gay Alliance Ukraine" Taras Karasiichuk and Stanislav Mischenko.
"Family matters! Reaching out to hearts and minds" – was the key theme of the conference and it was not about the "family values" that some forces try to oppose to the LGBT movement in homophobic countries. However, the problem of infamous laws banning "propaganda of homosexuality" was frequently addressed during the meetings. First and foremost it was about Russia, but Ukraine and Lithuania – states, where similar legislation is under discussion in Parliaments, – were also repeatedly mentioned in this context.
In general, the delegates participated in more than thirty seminars and workshops during the conference. Many of them were dedicated to the "traditional values" issues that clerics use as a weapon against gays, discussion of the results of the ILGA-Europe State Sponsored Homophobia report, issues on LGBT-parents and their children, as well as to the well-being – the universal concept to determine the welfare of an individual or a group. The workshop on well-being was conducted by experienced international trainer Jolanta Tsihanovich, who is a long-time partner of UPO "Gay Alliance Ukraine" in the implementation of various projects and conducting trainings on community mobilization and psychological burnout prevention among the activists.
Gabi Calleja, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe's Executive Board, said: "Since 1989 when Denmark became the first country in the world to legally recognize same-sex unions, Europe achieved tremendous progress towards legal recognition of LGBTI families. As of 2013, 35% of European population live in the countries where same-sex registered partnerships are legal and 27% in countries where marriage is open to all couples regardless of their gender and sexual orientation".
Unfortunately our country is not included in this list. However, the participation in this conference was crucial for UPO "Gay Alliance Ukraine". The trip to Croatia was possible due to the kind assistance of the Swedish Agency SIDA. In Zagreb, the representatives of our organization had a meeting with Mrs. Uzra Zeya, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She was interested in problems, successes and plans of LGBT activists and what her state can do to support gay-movement in Ukraine. Beyond that, Taras Karasiichuk and Stanislav Mischenko communicated with colleagues from Georgia, Moldova and Armenia having discussed a potential partnership in a regional project, supposedly to be implemented under the support of SIDA. A meeting with representatives of the Norwegian LGBT organization LLH also took place: the conversation was about one of the biggest events in the life of European gay people – Europride, which will be held in Oslo in 2015. There was also a meeting with the RFSL group activists from Sweden. Further cooperation with the human rights organization Freedom House, one of the conference supporters, was discussed. And the meeting with the ILGA-Europe management team itself was held. At the conference UPO "Gay Alliance Ukraine" exercised its electoral right to select five new members of the Supervisory Board of ILGA-Europe, as well as to vote for a city of the conference 2015 to take place, which became Athens (in the following year the event will be held in Riga).
One of the main themes of the conference was to discuss the upcoming elections to the European Parliament in May 2014, where works LGBT Intergroup, led by Michael Cashman MEP (UK) and Ulrike Lunacek MEP (Austria), the first open lesbian-politician of such a high level in the history of her country. Delegates focused their attention on the fact that these elections will be an important milestone for the European LGBT movement, and therefore it is necessary to maximally ensure the entrance to the European Parliament as many candidates who support LGBT rights and freedoms as possible.
Michael Cashman and Ulrike Lunacek participated in the conference as speakers. Beside them, in the event took part many other well-known politicians and activists: Cynthia Rothschild, consultant to numerous NGOs on areas related to the United Nations, sexual rights, HIV/AIDS, gender and women human rights defenders, Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, Director for Equality in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice, Stavros Lambrinidis, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, who currently being a Special Representative of European Parliament for Human Rights and Deputy Speaker of Sejm, feminist and human rights activist Ванда Wanda Nowicka. Robert Biedro?, first and the only openly gay MP in Poland, General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBT people, addressed the conference participants with the special video message. On behalf of the city authorities the Mayor of Zagreb greeted the delegates: especially in their honor a reception was held in the castle Pala?a Dverce, where the City Hall is located. In addition, the badges of conference participants served as a travel ticket for all means of the public transport.
"For UPO "Gay Alliance Ukraine" it is essential to be in contact with our European colleagues, to feel ourselves as the part of a big European family, – summarizes the conference output Taras Karasiichuk. – Our advocacy activities success is closely linked to the international advocacy and we are proud that our organization represents Ukraine with dignity in such an international structure as ILGA-Europe".
Автор: Press service of UPO “Gay Alliance Ukraine”, ILGA-Europe
