Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Side 18

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18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 8 — 2011
Opinion | Human rights
Are you maybe an 'EU-citizen'? How does it feel? Should
we try to join?
PREREqUISITES FOR AN ENLIGHT-
ENED DEBATE
On Iceland’s behalf, the application
work is in the hands of a negotiation
committee, government officials and
ten negotiation teams. A so-called
‘screening process’ (a comparison of
Icelandic and EU law, made to deter-
mine what subjects to negotiate on),
will soon be concluded. The EU has
therefore proposed the beginning of
actual negotiations this June 17 (inci-
dentally, Iceland’s Independence Day),
aiming to start with issues like com-
petition policy, media, research, educa-
tion and culture. After finishing these
chapters, the most difficult issues still
await the parties, which means that
an enlightened debate on the pros and
cons of a membership agreement will
have to wait.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND OTHER IN-
VISIBLE MATTERS
Questions about fisheries, agriculture
and currency are complex and contro-
versial, as they deal with important
economic interests. One can therefore
easily understand why other issues have
received little or no attention, regretta-
ble as it is. In hope of balancing the de-
bate a little, this article thus deals with
other aspects of European co-operation
and shifts the focus towards the issue
of human rights. It zooms in on the
rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and
transgender people (LGBT) and looks
at how the application process is already
affecting NGOs like Samtökin ’78—the
Icelandic Queer Organization.
To join the European Union, a coun-
try needs to meet certain economic and
political conditions, the so-called Co-
penhagen criteria. These terms include
stability of democratic institutions, the
rule of law, human rights and respect
for and protection of minorities. The
Justice and Home Affairs negotiation
team oversees the chapter on judiciary
and fundamental rights, which in-
cludes human rights. Screening of the
chapter was concluded in February this
year and no questions were raised about
exemptions, specially tailored solutions
or adjustments, as the parties did not
see any troubles in closing it. In fact,
EU praised the protection of human
rights in Iceland and indicated that it
didn’t see any impending problems.
ALARMING RISE OF ExTREMISM IN
EUROPE
Compared to Iceland, the state of LGBT
rights in many European countries is
in a pretty bad shape. This has caused
great concerns and provoked reactions
within various EU institutions. The
European Parliament’s Intergroup on
LGBT Rights is an example of how
members of the parliament have re-
acted. The group provides parliament
members with an informal forum to
work for LGBT rights across national
borders and party lines and currently
engages 115 MEPs out of 735. A group
meeting in early April revealed that
despite some progress in recent years
things have generally been moving in
the wrong direction. Growing extrem-
ism, accompanied by prejudice and ha-
tred towards LGBT people, has found
its way into the mainstream discourse
and continues to shape discriminating
laws and practices of government insti-
tutions. This has recently been the case
in countries like Slovakia, Lithuania
and Hungary, to name but a few.
One of the many roles of NGOs like
Samtökin ’78 is to monitor authorities
in order to keep some politicians from
forgetting their rosy promises and oth-
ers from implementing policies that
violate human rights. In a globalised
world states are increasingly depen-
dent on each other, as well as on other
agents. Problems are rarely limited to
individual countries and need to be
dealt with at a supranational level. This
applies to governments and NGOs
alike. LGBT organisations have long co-
operated within the International Les-
bian and Gay Association (ILGA). The
European branch, ILGA-Europe, was
established in 1996 and has about 300
member organisations in 40 European
countries.
ILGA-Europe puts much effort
into strengthening the so-called EU-
Network, the purpose of which is to
harmonize policies and actions and
strengthen capacities to inf luence vari-
ous EU institutions. It has now invited
Samtökin ‘78 to participate in this co-
operation and offers financial help to
meet travel expenses, which is of great
importance for a small volunteer based
organisation on the outskirts of Europe.
ILGA-Europe’s increased interest in
Iceland is not surprising, as it is directly
linked with the country’s growing in-
volvement in European affairs through
the EU application.
JOINING, OR NOT?
Faced with the poor state of LGBT
rights in many countries, and noting
the fact that discriminatory national
law often violates overriding European
law, ILGA-Europe is now discussing
the possibility of strategic litigations
before European courts. It has also
started the work on an ‘Annual report
on the situation of LGBT people in Eu-
rope’ and called for contributions from
its member organisations. Apart from
this, ILGA-Europe is currently in dia-
logue with EU institutions about mu-
tual recognition of same-sex marriages,
partnerships or civil unions. Such
pan-European recognition would be ex-
tremely important for same sex couples
and their families, but meets staunch
opposition of various groups that lobby
against LGBT rights in Brussels.
Iceland’s EU application has already
affected Samtökin ’78 by broadening
and deepening the current co-operation
with ILGA-Europe and sister organisa-
tions throughout the continent. This
has created possibilities for a dynamic
and interactive participation with the
sharing of experiences, mutual sup-
port, learning and engagement of lo-
cal members, and will undoubtedly
benefit the organisation in the long
run. Icelandic LGBT citizens have long
enjoyed more civil rights than many of
their neighbours, something that is re-
f lected in a strong legal framework. The
situation might not be perfect, and even
though prejudices and stereotypes are
very much alive and kicking in Iceland,
not least of which can be found in the
media, we must not forget that things
are still much better than in many
other European countries. Iceland has
a lot to offer in these matters, but can
also learn a great deal from others. All
things considered, joining the Queero-
pean Union in order to pursue these
goals might not be such a bad idea.
Joining The queeropean Union
Words
Hilmar Magnússon
Illustration
Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
“Icelandic LGBT citizens have long enjoyed
more civil rights than many of their neighbours,
something that is ref lected in a strong legal
framework”
Three topics—fisheries,
agriculture and curren-
cy—have been prominent
in the Icelandic debate
on the European Union since the
country applied for EU membership
in July of 2009. The discourse has
been dominated by big words, and
often goes to extremes, but since
an accession agreement has yet to
be finalised, most statements re-
main purely speculative.