Vom Verbot zur Gleichberechtigung - Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung

10 | Germany’s Responsibility for the Human Rights of LGBTI 157
there is reason to hope that Eastern European societies will continue to modernise after
accession to the EU, just as has been the case in Spain and Portugal. The perspective of
accession of the Balkan countries, Ukraine and Turkey to the EU thus provides a perspective
for an improvement of the situation of LGBTI.
2. Germany’s responsibility within the context of the United Nations
Within the UN, an open and objective discussion on discrimination on grounds of sexual
orientation and sexual identity is still highly taboo. The federal government decisively
opposes religious or purported “cultural” arguments intended to justify discrimination or
persecution. There is nothing that can justify disdain, exclusion, persecution and violence
– human rights are unlimited and universally valid. With strong support from the
EU, within which we are especially active, we can make progress on this topic.
The most recent and notable progress was the adoption of the first resolution by the UN
Human Rights Council on LGBTI rights. In this conjunction, the EU was able to ensure
that the resolution clearly condemns violence and discrimination on grounds of sexual
identity. Consequently, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay,
submitted the first report on this topic on December 16, 2011, which also recommends
granting asylum in cases of persecution due to sexual orientation and the legal recognition
of the preferred sex of transsexuals.
There has also been some movement in the General Assembly. In December of 2012, the
federal government, along with its EU partners and the United States, succeed for the
first time anchoring the express condemnation of executions on grounds of sexual orientation
in a resolution against extralegal executions. Declarations by the General Assembly
promoting the rights of LGBTI have received increasing support in recent years.
The resistance of most Islamic and a great number of African countries is, however, considerable.
In this context, the Europeans work, for the most part, in close cooperation
with the United States and many Latin American countries.
3. Germany’s bilateral efforts
In its coalition agreement, the federal government agreed to work against the discrimination
and persecution of LGBTI. This manifests itself, in addition to its efforts in international
bodies, in countless declarations, bilateral discussions and individual projects. At
the same time, this also means that the situation of LGBTI must also be anchored as a
human rights topic in the minds and hearts of all of the diplomats and development
workers who represent German foreign and development policy.