May 23, 2017
Events
On the 21st of May, Brussels decorated its rainbow flags and held the 5th edition of IDAHOT Forum. The conference brought together ministers, policy makers, experts, academics, and civil society actors to represent the Forum, where they met, exchanged experiences and came out in support of a strong European policy for LGBTI persons.
This year’s Forum, entitled Back to the Future: Retrospection and Progress – 5 years of IDAHOT Forum, aimed to focus on the steps that have been taken towards the full social inclusion of LGBTI people, emphasising the most recent progress as well as the challenges specific groups within the LGBTI community face.
Opening speeches were made by Zuhal Demir, Belgian Federal State Secretary for Equal Opportunities, Karen Ellemann, Minister of Equality of Denmark and Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN Independent Expert on Violence and Discrimination based on SOGI.
The plenary session tackled the questions on how to raise Intersex awareness to action. It was followed by the ministerial conference where TGEU presented the 2017 Trans Rights Europe Map and Index and ILGA-Europe its Rainbow Index and Map. IGLYO was proud to present the LGTBQI Inclusive Education Index – index supporting national governments and civil society organisations to tackle the issue within education. Presentations and speeches were followed by breakout sessions on LGBTIQ+ community, struggles, inclusion and education.
The conference was closed with the announcement of the next IDAHOT Forum which will take place in Portugal – just around the same time as the Eurovision 2018!
See the video interviews below on why is the Education Index important?
Ben Baks, Government of the Netherlands:
Juliette Sanchez-Lambert, the Policy Officer on education at ILGA Europe:
