On 22 June, Amnesty International, Norwegian chapter’s expert group on Lesbian, Gay, Bi- and Transsexual rights will host a seminar at the Norwegian Human Rights House on how to empower the rights of gays and lesbians in Eastern Europe. Experts and activists from the region will blend with some of the key Norwegian spokespersons on these issues for what promises to be a thoughtprovoking and very timely seminar. (13-JUNE-05)
Despite the decriminalisation of homosexuality throughout almost the whole of Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, the attitudes among the people continues to be explicitly, sometimes violently, hostile towards gays and lesbians. While their fundamental rights are being violated daily, a deeper change of attitudes among people at large continues to require on the one hand brave individuals daring to live their alternative sexual orientations out in the open, on the other international organisations prepared t stand by and support the work and lives of these individuals.
Amnesty International, co-located with the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, has invited human rights defenders from Poland, the Russian Federation, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina to tell about their work and about what they want from us, living in a far more tolerant society. The overseas speakers represent organisations that monitor, register and report violations, that carry out various information activities, that lobby politically at all levels for anti-discriminatory legislation to be introduced, and that debate debate these issues in the media and elsewhere continuously.
The speakers are:
Maxim Anmeghicigan, leader of the gay organisation Information Center GenderDoc-M in Chisinau, Moldova. Anmeghicigan is also a board member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) Europe. He will talk on the situation of lesbians and gays in Moldova and how Ilga?s activists work to strengthen the protection against discrimination within the EU.
Konstantin Egornov, leader of the gay organisation Krug in Murmansk, the Russian Federation.
Svetlana Djurkovic, leader of he gay organisation Q-Association in Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ania Gruszczynska, co-ordinator for the Krakow section of the organisation Campaign Against Homophobia and active in organising the festival Cracow?s Culture for Tolerance 2005. Gruszczynska will show the documentary
?Tolerancza!?, about the attacks on the gay parade in Krakow in May 2004.
Dag Øistein Endsjø¸ leader of the Human Rights forum within Landsforeningen for lesbisk og homofil frigjøring, a national organisation promoting the full liberation of gay and lesbian living. Endsjø will talk on what protection gays and lesbians have according to international law and what the enlargement of the EU eastwards may come to imply for the rights of gays and lesbians throughout Europe.
The seminar is free and open for all. It begins at 12.00 and lasts until 18.00. To accommodate those unable to attend until after ordinary working hours, there will be an interval from 15.00 to 15.30. Please register your participation before 17 JUne with marna@chello.no
