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Rainbow NewsRussia caused European LGBT scandal: the youth was left with no declaration
25 Sep. 2012
Dmitry Livanov - the Russian Minister for Education and Science
One of the participants of the Conference cites in his Facebook the response of the Russian high ranking official -"We are not going to support any fags!". The response was given to reason the Russian position in the framework of this international forum. His saying is also cited on one of the blogs (automated translation here >>).
The EC Youth Ministers' Conference in Saint-Petersburg was concluded with a scandal. Russia abstained from signing the 9th Conference's Declaration on the grounds it was mentioning the human rights for gays and lesbians. For the first time since 1985 when such forums started to convene, its declaration was not adopted. In its back-rooms and from the tribune one could hear about the export of homophobia in the EU from Russia and demolition of the modern European principles of communal life. The Russian stance, according to the opinion of the conference's participants, also might give a green light for politicians from neighboring countries where gays are being sentenced to capital punishment, subjected to conversion therapy and (or) being ousted from social life.
On the eve of this event, Dmitry Livanov stated that "it was necessary to look for new forms which would increase tolerance and socialization of the youth". But today, on September 25th, informs "The Coming out (Vykhod)", during the final session of this Conference the deputy Minister for Education and Science of the Russian Federation has flatly refused to sign the Declaration on the grounds it was mentioning "the point that called for the fight with the LGBT youth discrimination and its human rights violation". The deputy Minister pointed out that "they (gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals - gay.ru) were not being discriminated and had the same volume of rights as the other citizens of Russia. But the special inclusion of this point into the resolution's text would be nothing but the propaganda of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderness". Livanov - the Russian Minister for Education and Science was absent that day and missed the Conference. Other 20 ministers thought that the Russian Authorities showed disrespect for them.
The theme of the conference this year was "The youth's access to human rights: development of innovations in the youth policy". According to "Vykhod", Russia's behavior clearly shows her open will to support discrimination of LGBT people. For reference: During the previous sessions, the "LGBT issue" did not caused any questions from the Russian officials.
Minister Livanov's and his deputies' statements caused indignation of ministers for Education of Belgium, Sweden and many other EC countries. The participants of this conference gave big applause to those who objected the Russian decision. Pascal Smet, the Flemish minister for Youth affairs, Education and Equal opportunities, stressed that he believed it was very necessary to include the non-discrimination principle into LGBT issue and everywhere when it was concerning the youth. "We mean human dignity and human rights. Information about homosexuality does not make you a gay. It is not a propaganda!".
Niyamko Sabuni, Swedish minister for gender issues and deputy minister for education, said she regretted such an end of the conference. But it would be worse if the conference had adopted a declaration without any non-discrimination positions towards gays or lesbians. It would be a more serious disappointment". She stressed Sweden's good will to further seek a resolution to this issue.
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, EC Deputy Secretary General expressed her concern with failure to adopt the declaration. She said that such Russian position threatened the signing of a new Russia-EC Agreement on Youth Policy (the acting agreement expires in the end 2012), realization of a number of international youth programs and projects with Russian youth participation.
Ministers and delegates from 50 states and leaders of many international youth organizations ratified the EC Culture Convention during this Conference that has concluded today its work in Saint-Petersburg. Experts note that Russian delegation has refused to sign any document against discrimination of LGBT people and it was done in the city that had adopted the so-called Don't Say Gay law.
It was not the first Russian démarche - in April 2012 the Russian Foreign Ministry got direct instructions from the Kremlin "to disassociate from the attempts to ex-articulate homosexuals in a separate social group which was pretending for protection of its rights". As a result Russia made an official statement that she did not support the given wording in the adopted final declaration of the G8 Presidency.
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