In its judgment delivered today in the case Identitoba and Others v Georgia the European Court of Human Rights has held the Georgian authorities responsible for homophobic violence against participants of a pride march in 2012. The Court stressed that Art. 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The authorities should have ensured more police manpower by mobilising, for instance, a squad of anti-riot police, and state authorities have the duty to take all reasonable steps to unmask possible discriminatory motives, the Court said. Discriminatory remarks and insults must in any event be considered as an aggravating factor, it made clear.

ECSOL-members Robert Wintemute and Helmut Graupner as well as Nigel Warner from ILGA-Europe spoke at a panel on the European Court of Human Rights (facilitated by Eleni Tsetsekou, Head of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit, Council of Europe) at the Third Ministerial IDAHO Forum 2015 organised by ECSOL-member Jovan Kojicic.

In a preliminary ruling delivered today in a case litigated by ECSOL-member Caroline Mécary (Geoffrey Léger v Ministre des affaires sociales et de la santé, Établissement français du sang, C-528/13) the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held that men who have sex with men (MSM) may not be subjected a priori to a blanket ban on donating blood. 

In a resolution adopted today, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called for abolition of the legal requirement of sterilisation and other compulsory medical treatment in laws regulating the procedure for changing a name and registered gender. Consideration should be given to the possibility of “including a third gender option in identity documents for those who seek it”.