On September 26, the SOGI Unit hosted an event on homophobic and transphobic hate speech and violence. The workshop was organised in cooperation with the European Governmental LGBTI Focal Points Network and the High-level conference for ECRI’s 25th anniversary.
Director-General Snežana Marković opened the event:
Hate speech and hate crime against LGBTI persons are a symptom of a growing polarisation of modern societies – an “illiberal backlash”. Homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, misogyny, racism, anti-Gypsyism sound like terms of a medical dictionary – symptoms of the suffering souls of our divided communities.
Stating that illiberal movements are good at building a common agenda, she asked: “Can we do better than them?”
Eleni Tsetsekou, Head of the SOGI Unit, stated that Europe has witnessed considerable progress in legislative and policy measures, but that these warrant proper implementation. Stephanie Marsal, anti-discrimination expert, emphasised that despite the significant legislative advances in members states, these are uneven across the Council of Europe membership:
Inclusion of sexual orientation as a ground in hate crime legislation was only done by 53% of respondent states: one in two countries. The inclusion of gender identity is even lower, at only 32% of member states.
These statistics show an improving yet weak picture of hate crime legislation, one which must improve in the future considering the large under-reporting of cases.
A panel discussion focused on steps to enhance implementation of non-discrimination. Alain Parmentier, president of the European LGBT Police Association, focused on police forces’ need to fight LGBTI hate:
Police forces must ensure that LGBTI victims of hate crimes feel safe in police stations. For every attack, a LGBTI person must absolutely come and lodge a complaint in a police station.
Evelyne Paradis, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, added:
The last thing a victim wants during trauma is to re-live trauma with a person they do not know or trust.
Focusing on the role of politicians in inciting hate speech, Violeta Tomić, Special Rapporteur on the rights of LGBTI people of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, highlighted:
Politicians have a special responsibility to combat all forms of hatred in our societies. Yet when we ban Pride marches or declare so-called “LGBT-free” zones, this is state-sponsored homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.
Ben Baks, Coordinator of the European Governmental LGBTI Focal Points Network, welcomed Director-General Marković’s announcement to establish a new committee on anti-discrimination issues to address all grounds of discrimination from 2020.
