The first international treaty banning sexual orientation discrimination comes into force today – the Treaty of Lisbon

Today the European Union’s Treaty of Lisbon is coming into force. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights which constitutes an integral part of the Treaty of Lisbon is the first and the only international document containing provision that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is prohibited.

Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights reads:

1. Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is the first EU consolidated document containing the values and fundamental economic, social, civil and political rights to which EU citizens should be entitled to. The Charter does not establish new rights but rather codifies existing rights that were previously scattered over a range of documents.

Martin K.I. Christensen, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board, said:

“We wholeheartedly welcome the entry into the force of the Treaty of Lisbon and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The European Union made it crystal clear and provided the EU institutions and EU Member States with guidelines that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is incompatible with the application of the Union’s law. At the same time we regret that three countries, the UK, Poland and Czech Republic, opted out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. We are particularly concerned with Poland’s reasons for not signing the Charter as the Polish leaders believe the Charter might compromise their sovereignty in the ‘sphere of public morality, family law’.”

The overall aim of the Treaty of Lisbon is to make the decision making process within the EU more democratic, efficient as well as to give the EU greater profile on international arena.

In particular, the Treaty of Lisbon will give more powers to the European Parliament, the only democratically elected by EU citizens EU institutions. The European Parliament gain equal footing with other EU institutions in decision making process in more areas.

The Treaty of Lisbon strengthens EU Member States and institutions’ obligation to tackling discrimination and mainstreaming equality. A new Article 10 of the Treaty makes it clear that the EU must take into consideration combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in all its policies and actions.

The other important development brought by the Treaty of Lisbon is that the EU is becoming a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. All EU Members States are signatories to the Convention, but now human rights as provided by the Convention and national constitutions will constitute general principles of the European Union.

Linda Freimane, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board said:

“The Treaty of Lisbon brings many positive changes which indeed re-affirm and strengthen EU’s human rights stance. The European Unions was always one of the world’s leader on human rights, but now we have a Treaty ratified by all 27 EU members States which clearly identifies the duties of the EU institutions to take human rights and equality issues to the very centre of their work when adopting various policies and taking actions.”