Response to the parliamentary question on the effective use of the LGBT Toolkit
The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the body representing all 27 EU governments, has responded to a written question on the effective use of the LGBT Toolkit. Adopted in June 2010, the Toolkit to Promote and Protect the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People is a central tool to encourage the decriminalisation of homosexuality, combat discrimination, and assist LGBT human rights defenders in third countries.
Response given by the Council:
The implementation of the Toolkit is, and will continue to be, kept under review by Council bodies, but there are no formal reporting requirements.
The Toolkit has been distributed to all EU Delegations and has been translated into all EU languages, as well as more recently into Arabic, Russian and Chinese. An introduction to LGBT rights is now an integral part of EEAS human rights training.
As far as EU Delegations are concerned, the EU will work through the human rights country strategies (currently under development) to ensure that LGBT issues are identified among the human rights issues in relation to the three priority areas (decriminalisation, equality and non‑discrimination, and support and protection for human rights defenders) in countries where they are most problematic.
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