Zagreb will host European gay conference in 2013

Zagreb was chosen as the next city to host the ILGA conference in the year 2013. That has been decided at the annual ILGA conference which was held from the 27^th till 30^th of October in Torino. Iskorak association – the Center for the rights of sexual minorities and the lesbian association Kontra are going to be the promoters of the annual ILGA conference in Zagreb 2013.

The 15^th annual conference of the ILGA Europe in Torino ended on the 30^th of October as it says in the announcement. 343 lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, and intersexual (LGBTI) activists, highly positioned European and Italian politicians and representatives of other organizations from 43 countries have gathered in Torino in the period from 27^th to 30^th of October on the largest annual event to discuss the LGBTI rights in Europe.

The subject of the conference was ‘’Human rights and traditional values: conflict or dialog?’’. That subject and other important questions were discussed in the plenum, workshops and in other working groups. As the ILGA Europe is celebrating its 15^th anniversary this year, the conference has looked back on the history of the European LGBTI movement and the challenges that are yet to come.

At the annual conference a declaration was adopted about the situation in the northern Cyprus. It is still the only territory in Europe where a mutually willing sexual relationship between two adult men is still considered as a criminal activity.

This year’s conference got its support from the president of Italy Giorgio Napolitano and it was under sponsorship of the Italian senate, House of Representatives, Italian parliament, minister for equal opportunities and the county of Torino.

The co-chairman of the ILGA Europe’s executive board Martin K.I. Christensen said: ‘’ We are very satisfied with the amount of attention that the IGLA Europe annual conference received from the Italian authorities. One of the goals of the annual conference was to help our organization members in the host’s country for the improvement of the LGBTI population rights. Let’s hope that our conference, the presence of a great number of activists and experts that are working on this in Italy in the combination with the enormous support shown by the national and local authorities in Italy will result with concrete actions that will lead towards the improvement of the rights of the LGBTI population in Italy’’.

Although Italy is one of the co-founders of the European Union and of the European Council, it is still one of the most undeveloped countries in Europe when it is about the rights of the LGBTI population. That can be seen on the map of Europe which was made by the LGBTI.

During the annual conference new members were selected and welcomed in the executive board of the IGLA Europe. Five new members that were chosen for the two year mandate are: Louise Ashworth (Great Britain), Martin K.I. Christensen (Denmark), Paulo Côrte-Real (Portugal), Sanja Juras (Croatia), Tanja Lehtoranta (Finland) and Björn van Roozendaal (Netherlands) who was elected as a backup member for the executive board.

New co-chairmen of the ILGA Europe executive board were elected on the first meeting of the ‘’new’’ executive board. They are: Gabriela Calleja i Martin K.I.Christensen.

This year’s conference was organized in the collaboration with the organization committee of the 15^th annual ILGA Europe in Torino. The annual ILGA Europe conference will be held next year in October 2012 in Dublin (Ireland).