Responding to a request from the Polish Parliament concerned about the increasing discrimination against LGBTI+ people, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe conducted a fact-finding mission on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 November which is expected to result in a report on “The role and responsibilities of local governments in protecting LGBTI+ persons”.
The text will be written by British Conservative Andrew Boff and Swedish Socialist Yoomi Renström, who had already written a report on the subject in 2015.
Following the denunciations of anti-LGBTI areas by the European Parliament and the withdrawal of European Commission grants to some Polish towns within the twinning framework, this survey confirms the European pressure against the discriminatory policy promoted by the Polish government.
This pressure is exerted both at the level of the European Union and the Council of Europe, which relies on the European Convention on Human Rights and its case-law reinforced by a Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers, which in 2010 defined “measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)