Proposition 54K1134

Proposition de résolution pour la dépénalisation de l'homosexualité dans le monde.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Els Van Hoof
LE Georges Dallemagne
MR Olivier Chastel, Denis Ducarme, Jean-Jacques Flahaux, Kattrin Jadin, Richard Miller, Sybille de Coster-Bauchau
Open Vld Sabien Lahaye-Battheu
PS | SP Gwenaëlle Grovonius

Submission date

June 3, 2015

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

anti-discriminatory measure discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation resolution of parliament sexual minority criminal law

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PVDA | PTB PP

Abstained from voting

VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

June 23, 2016 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I will refer to my written report, but I would still like to clarify one important element.

This is the first time in the history of this legislature that a resolution is constructed with the entire commission. The work was carried out in an excellent and constructive atmosphere and resulted in an equally excellent result thanks to the cooperation between the different collaborators and the commissioners themselves. It is to greet. As for the substance, I will speak for my group later in the general discussion. I would like to congratulate Mr. Congratulations for this great initiative and this beautiful result!

Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen Members, dear colleagues, a human being, in order to build itself, needs enormous things, including a home, loving parents, an educational context, etc. But he also needs not to be ostracised throughout his life or during a large part of it. This is still the case for homosexuals in the world. This is the case for the majority of the inhabitants of this planet, even though it no longer concerns a majority of countries.

The resolution proposal on the decriminalization of homosexuality, which I present with my colleagues Olivier Chastel, Denis Ducarme, Sabine Lahaye-Battheu, Els Van Hoof, Gwenaëlle Grovonius, Georges Dallemagne, Kattrin Jadin, Richard Miller and Sybille de Coster-Bauchau participates in this movement to change the horizons.

The joint signature of deputies representing the various political and linguistic landscapes shows, if needed, both the community of views in our country – and it is happy, we are a flagship country on the subject of LGBTQI rights – but also the awareness that if in Belgium these rights have force of law, it is unfortunately not the same everywhere. Even where these rights are recognised on the legislative level, it is necessary to make further progress in the recognition and respect of them by the whole social body.

Indeed, as I just said, even in countries where rights are recognized, LGBTQI people are still too often victims of rejection, insults, assaults and murders.

We saw it at home, with the assassination of Ihsane Jarfi a few years ago, which led us to tighten the penalties incurred for homophobic crimes. We still see it with assaults, even on the street, of transgender people who get kicked, as was the case even recently in Etterbeek, or with other assaults going to murder, as in Brussels just a few weeks ago.

We also, unfortunately, saw it, terrified, in Orlando where forty-nine people were killed by a man whose investigation will tell us whether it was his personal rejection of LGBTQI or his adherence to the ideas of the Nazi Islamists that armed his arm. We also saw, at the funerals, anti-gay groups coming to demonstrate their rejection.

The rights of gays are acquired in the United States, but recently and they are far from being exercised in their fullness. By the way, they are still the subject of a struggle on the part of the American neo-conservatives who find themselves in the Tea Party and who would like to push back the legislation on the matter.

In other parts of the world, although the rights of LGBTQI have improved since, about fifteen years ago, about seventy-one countries had decriminalized homosexuality and that we are now one hundred and fourteen, I remind you nevertheless that there are about two hundred countries in the world. This means that there is still a long way to go, not necessarily in terms of acceptance of homosexuality, but simply in terms of its decriminalization.

In some countries, laws inherited from the colonial era, which have become obsolete in our country, are put into effect and plunge LGBTQI into clandestinity and fear, confronting them with verbal and physical violence, leading them to prison, sentencing them to death. I am reminded of the event that took place recently in Morocco. Two gay men who were in their apartment saw several young people coming home, who took them out of their homes, beat them and lynched them on the streets. In the end, the Moroccan court condemned the victims, not the aggressors. It shows how long the road is still.

It is therefore necessary to make progress in the struggle for the decriminalization of homosexuality, following the first advances in 2008, when the UN for the first time addressed the issue in these terms. On this occasion, and this surprises us as Belgians, a counter-declaration was adopted by 57 states, which associated homosexuality, bestiality, incest and zoophilia, which still shows the way to go for a true equality of rights among all human beings.

Our proposal therefore calls on the government to act actively for a decriminalization of homosexuality, not in Belgium where it is done, but everywhere in the world, and to fight against discrimination against LGBTQI in all its forms. With this proposal, we call on Belgium to act in this direction within its policy of development cooperation, with respect to partner countries, within the framework of bilateral foreign policy and within the European Union.

Belgium, in paragraph 2 of article 11 of the law of 19 March 2013 on development cooperation, highlights the gender dimension and the equality of rights of men and women in society. The Belgian foreign policy promotes the same values. Therefore, this resolution calls for the cooperation and development policy and Belgian foreign policy to continue dialogue on gender identity and sexual orientation in order to end discrimination; to make the fight against all discrimination against LGBTQI a priority in all bilateral relations with all countries and within all international bodies; to invite the other Member States of the European Union to incorporate the issue of LGBTQI rights in their relations with their partners; and finally to include this issue on the agenda of meetings of the various European bodies and other relevant international institutions, and to ensure that persons in charge of human rights monitoring respect these rights for LGBTQI. Finally, they must integrate actions for LGBTQI rights into the Gender and Development Action Plan.

Educational programmes should also, of course, raise awareness among the peoples of partner countries on this issue of combating stereotypes in education, culture, sport, research, and help partner countries implement an active policy to safeguard all rights of LGBTQI.

There is also a need for the health policy to change.

We also need to protect human rights defenders and NGOs, and whenever there are judicial decisions based on sexual orientation and gender identity, those who do not respect this sexual orientation must be highlighted and condemned.

It is also necessary to call for work within the Human Rights Council of which Belgium is once again a member to decriminalize homosexuality universally.

It is clear that even within LGBTQIs, there is the particular sector of transgender. In this area, even Belgium is still working on a project. In many countries, even those that have already decriminalized homosexuality, there is still a lot of work to be done, to the point that, even today, transgenderism is on the World Health Organization’s list of mental illnesses.

Each member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe must be able, individually, to take the rights of LGBTQI as a transversal priority in defence of human rights and to defend these rights in the event of proven violations in member countries. It was again seen recently in Istanbul, the repression was ⁇ violent during a pride.

At the meeting, as Mr. Hellings very rightly, I emphasize the great consensus in which we have been able to work. A number of majority and opposition amendments were discussed and widely adopted. We are very pleased that this resolution was unanimously voted by the European Parliament. Beyond voting on this resolution, it is important that we can take this resolution as a roadmap for both MEPs and federal, regional and community ministers.

Dear colleagues, with this text, which I consider ambitious and courageous, I dare hope that we will be able to resume the still unfortunately too long march for equal rights and total non-discrimination in matters of identity and sexual orientation, so that everyone can live without being stigmatized because of their gender identity, gender, sexual orientation. Because after all, whether we are gay or not gay, we are all human beings and we all have the same rights to develop in society. I thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will intervene briefly from my bank, because colleague Flahaux has already explained in detail what this resolution stands for.

The resolution aims to remove homosexuality from criminal law all over the world. It is primarily a call to the government to raise awareness and provide assistance to our partner countries in the context of development cooperation. It is also a call to develop an international treaty within the framework of our foreign policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, preference or identity.

The text of colleague Flahaux was a very good starting point and has been supplemented by constructive amendments of both the majority and the opposition to the text that now prevails. As the rapporteur, Mr. Hellings, recently said, the text was unanimously approved in the committee.

The N-VA Group will therefore again support this resolution today. Even though it is now a little later than the symbolic day against homophobia and transfobia, it remains an important signal that we will adopt this resolution today.

Mr. President, my dear colleagues, Gay Pride is banned in Istanbul for security reasons, it is threatened with a bloodbath in Kiev by ultra-nationalist movements; there has recently been this attack in this Orlando LGBTQI club, which killed 49 and wounded 53. Uganda, Russia have anti-gay laws. Homosexuality is practiced in many countries. We must not forget, simply, the ordinary homophobia that plagues on the street or on social media. The list of violations of the rights to moral and physical integrity of LGBTQIs in Belgium, Europe and the world could, unfortunately, be longer. Why Why ? By denying the simple right to love, regardless of sexual orientation.

The fight against homophobia, in its everyday and legal forms, must remain a political priority of our country, including in our diplomacy and development cooperation policies. Let’s be clear: the resolution we are discussing today will not be the miraculous answer to the facts I have just outlined! But could such a text only be discussed in a plenary session of the Russian Duma? We know the answer! So I’m proud to live in a country where the House of Representatives takes hold of a topic of cruel currentity. For homosexuality has remained a taboo in many countries; we do not have to go far to see how far this taboo remains within the European Union itself. Consider, for example, the municipality of Vilnius, which in 2008 refused to allow the truck of the European campaign “For Diversity, Against Discrimination” to stop in its city. In 2005, Lech Kaczynski, then mayor of Warsaw, banned Gay Pride in his city. The exacerbated conservatisms of many European countries are a danger to our common project.

We also remember the debates in France around marriage for all, which our country, on the other hand, had adopted under the rainbow government in a much more serene way.

For my group, it was also up to the Belgian members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, before looking at the problem internationally, to carry this debate within this guardian institution of the European Charter of Human Rights. By adopting my group’s amendment in this regard, the text today calls on our colleagues to put LGBTQI rights as a cross-priority priority in defence of human rights individually, but also to the Belgian delegation to carry out the required actions in this assembly in the event of a proven violation of LGBTQI rights in one of its member countries.

Far from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, in general, the long way to end all discrimination is not over, especially in the partner countries of Belgian development cooperation. I would like to mention Uganda, which is ⁇ concerned.

This text therefore calls for, and I will pay particular attention to, the inclusion in the Action Plan on Gender Integration in Belgian Development Cooperation of a series of actions related to the rights of LGBTQI persons.

The same applies to the priority to be given by the Belgian diplomacy, both in our bilateral and multilateral relations. The aim is to fully integrate this aspect into the "human rights" theme of the political dialogue ⁇ ined by the Belgian diplomacy in its diplomatic relations with its partners, but also in international forums, so that the decriminalization of homosexuality becomes a fact everywhere in the world.

Belgium, as one of the few countries where homosexuals enjoy the same rights as heterosexuals, must be active, be a driver in the defense of LGBTQI rights. In the 21st century, such discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is unacceptable.

Since discrimination knows no borders, our struggle must also cease. I sincerely believe in the internationalism of this struggle against discrimination. One cannot merely think that rights are acquired in Belgium and that’s enough.

This struggle, since it is a struggle, is therefore not finished, given the absence, to date, of a treaty prohibiting any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation, preference or identity.

The N-VA opposed in commission such a LGBTQI-specific treaty that the PS considers essential. The debate in Belgium is also not closed.

Finally, I will end my speech by thanking – once it is not customary – my colleague, Jean-Jacques Flahaux, who proposed to co-sign this text. And I welcome the fact that several Socialist amendments aimed at strengthening its system could have been adopted by the majority in the committee and are now included in the text under consideration.

The resolution on the depenalization of homosexuality is urgently needed. This was demonstrated by the terrible events in Orlando and, subsequently, in Istanbul, where the gaypride was not allowed to be organized and the participants who had yet to appear were hardhanded by the security services.

Internationally, homosexuality is criminalized in 80 countries, including Uganda, a partner country of the Belgian Development Cooperation. Homosexual propaganda is banned in Russia. It is therefore necessary that this resolution challenge the criminality in those 80 countries and calls for our foreign policy to prioritize the equality of rights for LGBTQs.

Belgium must remain a precursor. We are a precursor today, as we have the second place on the rainbow index of 2016. A study from the University of Gent shows that we are ranked fourth in terms of non-discriminatory legislation. Our government is also working today. Together with the Minister of Justice and the State Secretary for Poverty Reduction, legislation on transsexuality is being worked today. In order to expand our strong position abroad, this resolution is needed. We can play a leading role in this. Therefore, my group fully supports this resolution.

Not only our domestic, but also our foreign policy must be aimed at ending discrimination against LGBTQs. The need to engage and strengthen the global dialogue on sexual identity, orientation and preference is therefore our full cooperation.

Homosexual men and women around the world are victims of violations of their human rights. These violations range from subtle discrimination to imprisonment and torture. In almost half of the world’s countries, homosexuality is criminalized. In 2009, the international gay rights organization ILGA released a report that ⁇ that homosexuality is illegal in 80 countries. Five countries even impose the death penalty, namely Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The same applies to parts of Nigeria and Somalia. Of the persecution and discrimination of homosexuals outside the West is often known very little. In many countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, homosexuality is barely accepted and persecution is not perceived as a violation of human rights. Therefore, it is of great importance for us that the rights of holebies and gender variants are included in negotiations and contacts with countries where holebiesexuality is still criminalized or where LGBTQs are still being prosecuted.

Belgium has various instruments to combat violence against homosexuals. Through our development cooperation we can develop programs in Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Morocco, Mozambique, Uganda, Peru, Senegal or Tanzania. These are all countries where homosexuality is included in the criminal code and indeed is also punished. Together with our EU partners, we can also, in a bilateral or multilateral framework, send a clear message to countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, India, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria and Pakistan, so that they at least engage in the debate about the place homosexuality takes in their societies.

Homosexuality is not a choice. One does not learn it in school and one does not get it by visiting discos, as we have recently heard claiming, even in our country, colleagues. You are born so. We must not only continue to confirm this message in our own country, we must increase our efforts to further integrate that message into our foreign policy and towards our partner countries in the framework of development cooperation.

We will therefore approve this resolution with conviction.

Mr. Speaker, how far away is the time when, in January 2003, this Chamber voted for marriage and where, in April 2006, this same Chamber voted for adoption made possible for homosexual couples; how far away is the time when it was necessary to fight on such an essential issue!

Today, the issue of homosexuality in Belgium has become mainstream. And we can rejoice. Today, given the names of the signatories of the original resolution, as well as the content of that same resolution, we can say that the laws have not only modified the Belgian society, and its acceptance, but also very ⁇ modified the political world itself. And we can rejoice.

For the Greens, the 29 principles of Jogjakarta, which are mobilized by the resolution of Mr. Flahors are human rights. The rights of gay, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) are human rights like any other. Like the right to freedom of expression, the right to be able to syndicate, associate, etc. The principles are not different for these rights than for all other human rights that make us human beings capable of interacting in the world.

Belgium, with this resolution, and the House in particular, wants to give lessons to the world. And that’s right, because it’s true that, on the global ranking of LGBTQI rights, Belgium is ⁇ well placed. Nevertheless, three black points persist, matters that we must work on in the future as a legislative body.

The first is the law, necessary, on which Ms. Sleurs and Mr. Sleurs work. Geens, namely the transgender law, which was already on the occupation of the previous government and which, unfortunately, could not result in the previous legislature. It will be about being able to ⁇ a concrete outcome today and aiming at demedicalizing, de-psychologizing the phenomenon of gender change. We trust Mr. Geens and Mrs. Sleurs to do this. Environmentalists will be extremely attentive to the ongoing legislative process.

The second concerns the extremely discriminatory rule that affects very strongly, from a symbolic point of view in any case, male homosexuals who cannot donate their blood. The Minister of Health, who is present and participates in our discussions, has pledged to change this rule. It will also be a matter of being attentive to its implementation.

I come to the third point, for which the greatest difficulty arises in this resolution, namely asylum.

It is unquestionable today that, in a number of countries around the world, the rights of LGBTQI are not respected, which sometimes drives them to take the path of asylum.

Recital K, which was added during our work, was unanimous and does not question the Green Group’s support for the resolution. He adds: “Considering Belgium’s taking into account the situation of LGBTQI in asylum policy,” I think it is an extremely optimistic view of what the Foreign Office is doing, which, today, more than reasonably interrogates people who apply for asylum for reasons of homosexuality.

I mean as proof the extremely low application of Article 9b of the 1980 Act on the right of residence. Article 9b grants to sick persons ... In fact, it is now undisputed that many AIDS patients in our country, especially in Brussels, are homosexual. They almost never have the opportunity to obtain a right of residence based on their health status. Today, people with AIDS who are also homosexual are sent back to countries where they are twice at risk, on the one hand, for health issues because they will not be able to get care – this is not the subject of the resolution – and, on the other hand, for issues of sexual orientation. This will be the third point of attention on which the Greens will continue to work and will "take the shirt," if I can afford, the Secretary of State in charge of Asylum and Migration, who, in this matter, has not taken the necessary initiatives.

Finally, there is a resolution that was adopted on 3 March 2011 in that same Chamber and which was entitled exactly the same title. I think that we must take care, from today, that this resolution, which is the subject of unanimous vote in our House, does not remain a dead letter, so that what was seen in Istanbul or Orlando, what is seen today in Uganda, Russia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Iran or elsewhere is no longer possible. We will therefore vote on this resolution with enthusiasm and determination.

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen ministers, dear colleagues, it is not without emotion that I speak on behalf of my group on this resolution proposal ⁇ two weeks after the terrible attack on a gay club in Orlando. This dramatic event has reminded us, once again, how the LGBTQI community is a choice target for the enemies of democracy and freedom. The victims of this act of barbarism were targeted only for what they were and for what they expressed.

The situation in this community is even worse in other countries. In ⁇ 80 countries, discriminatory laws criminalize consent and private relations between persons of the same sex. These laws expose citizens to arrests, prosecution, imprisonment and even, in at least five countries, to the death penalty. In some of them, these penalties are applied with the greatest severity. In others, they are only very few, but encourage the police to discriminate, harass, or even assault the gay community, causing its members to burden a perpetual fear of rejection and violence.

Therefore, regardless of the concrete situation that arises from legislation criminalizing homosexuality, its decriminalization has nothing symbolic. It is essential for respecting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQI.

Fortunately, progress has been made. In India, the Supreme Court ordered parliament to consider the decriminalization of homosexuality, stating that the Indian Criminal Code denies the right of a gay person to his full personality. In the Seychelles, the decriminalization was voted on May 17, so that homosexuality will finally no longer be considered an act "contra-nature".

In other countries, such as Cameroon, the picture seems, on the contrary, to blacken, since the recent revision of the Criminal Code aims to consolidate the penalization of homosexuality, ignoring the demands of the judiciary and civil society. The Cameroonian government decrees that both the opposition and the majority were fiercely opposed to decriminalization.

The drama of Orlando also demonstrated to us that a country whose legislation is more or less favourable to the emancipation of LGBTQI is nevertheless not safe from attacks against that community. The work we have to do is a daily and long-lasting task. We cannot accept that an individual shocked by two men kissing each other decides, for this reason, to move on to the act.

It is often said, and I repeat it again, the key is the realization of the education to the relationship, affective and sexual life in all our schools, from the preschool.

Our manuals are still too often heteronormated. Homophobic discourse is a reality in our schools. There is a continuum between words and actions.

Therefore, my group fully supports this proposal and its awareness-raising objectives at the level of development cooperation policy and foreign policy. Our country has a fundamental role to play by its place within the European Union, the Council of Europe but also the Human Rights Council of the United Nations where we must seize these three years of representation as an opportunity to truly move the lines. I take this advantage to invite you, dear colleagues, to propose together a similar initiative calling on our federal and regional governments to also take all necessary measures to enable the respect and emancipation of the LGBTQI community in Belgium.

Of course, our country can boast of having an eminently progressive legislation in the matter, but, as my colleagues have recalled in the committee, progress remains to be made to address the difficulties facing homophobic asylum seekers to prove their homosexuality and be protected from new intimidations, to address the difficulty for transgender people to be recognized as a man or woman outside their body envelope, to address the low rate of prosecutions and convictions for homophobia or even to the systematic impossibility for homosexuals to give their blood even though their behavior would not be at risk.

On this last point, I would like to remind you that a proposal for a resolution has been submitted in this regard and that we will closely follow the results of the round table convened by Ms. Minister of Health. As I said in the committee, when you donate your blood, it is that you are responsible, whether you are gay or heterosexual; the people who do this gesture do it to the society and it has become urgent to take this into account. Such proposals must be so much more supported as it is also about actively supporting NGOs and associations LGBTQI and civil law whose work and courage I welcome and should be accompanied in their struggle so that everyone can be free, without any coercion or intimidation, to be themselves.

Mr. Speaker, our Group will also support the resolution proposed today. This is a strong signal that we must give about this struggle that remains relevant in the world, including in our country, for this equality of rights and this struggle against discrimination. It is important to give this signal when you see the recent events that have occurred in different countries.

With regard to development cooperation, I also believe that there will be a link to be made not only through decriminalization but also through fighting through education in these countries. Material means could be given to them to fight through education, through quality teaching. Therefore, it will not just be enough of a legislative and criminal evolution, but also of an evolution at the level of education.

I also hope that through development cooperation we can help different countries in this area.

It seems to me important, on the occasion of the international signals we give, that we demonstrate humility being aware that many battles have been fought in Belgium. Unfortunately, these battles are not yet over. The assassination of Ihsane, in 2012, to which Mr. Flahaux just recently proves well that the issue of homophobia is not closed in our country. This is a daily struggle that needs to be continued.

At the international level, everyone must also demonstrate humility. It should be remembered that in the past, Western countries have introduced – I think here in particular of the British colonial period – in their Criminal Code the criminalization of homosexuality. At that time, the Western countries did not really give the example.

In any case, it is important for us that this signal is sent, even if we were not present when we were examining this proposal in committee since we cannot attend all committee meetings. That is why the PTB will vote on this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I have not much to add, since everything has been said by the representatives of the various groups of this assembly on this subject.

Please know, in any case, that I will support this resolution proposal, which I very much like.