Vom Verbot zur Gleichberechtigung - Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung

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tain the pressure on representatives of the state/government in Germany, and beyond,
and, at the same time, it would send a clear signal to society and politicians in the countries
targeted in their work.
In terms of practical policy, this means playing an active role on various levels:
1. Within the context of the European Union
Here, two EU instruments are particularly notable. The first is the EU Guidelines on Human
Rights Defenders. By agreeing to these, EU missions have agreed to support and
defend human rights defenders in their respective guest countries, whenever and wherever
possible. The local missions are instructed to seek to work with, finance, and cooperate
with human rights organisations and activists and to protect them by extending invitations
and prominent recognition. The guidelines have been in force for a number of
years now, yet they have certainly not been sufficiently implemented in all countries. But
they have provided a practical impulse in European human rights policy. For activists,
direct help in a local context is often more important than weighty declarations made in
Western capitals.
The second instrument of European policy to promote the rights of LGBTI is the so-called
EU “toolkit”: a catalogue of measures in which EU countries have agreed to steps intended
to register infractions against the human rights of, and discrimination against, LGBTI
in third countries, formulate reactions, and jointly take action against the structural
causes. A primary goal of the EU, in this context, is to ensure that homophobic laws are
abolished and homosexuality is decriminalised. Germany played a leading role in the
development of this instrument and has been actively promoting its implementation.
It is, however, also important that we take note of the fact that the situation of sexual
minorities in the EU countries of Eastern Europe has improved. Here one sees that the
perspective of accession to the EU, or actual accession to the EU, leads to an improvement.
There is surely still a lot to do – especially in relation to the social acceptance of
LGBTI. The fact that a transsexual and an openly gay representative have just been
elected to the Polish parliament and have been promoting the discussion there are a
signs of a changing society.
I don’t intend to make the situation sound better than it is – there is enough to do in the
countries of Eastern Europe. But we should not forget that legal equality and social acceptance
has also not yet been fully achieved in Germany – despite all of the improvements
in recent years. This is also a relatively recent process here in Germany. Hence,