A Swiss report against exclusion
A Swiss report, a clear signal: in 2010, the Council of Europe called for protection for queer and trans people.
On 29 April 2010, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg debated discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. At the end of the day came Resolution 1728. It was a clear signal to all 47 member states at the time, from Iceland to Azerbaijan.
The report behind it came from Switzerland. It had been written for the Assembly's legal affairs committee by Andreas Gross, a Social Democrat member of the National Council from Zurich. His findings were sobering. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people experienced prejudice, violence and exclusion in many European countries. In some states, Pride events were banned or associations were prevented from doing their work.
The resolution calls for laws against discrimination and effective remedies for those affected. It criticises hate speech, including by politicians and religious leaders, and stresses that ending homophobia and transphobia above all requires political will. The Assembly also demanded that freedom of assembly and expression be guaranteed for queer people.
The text went particularly far on the rights of trans people. They should receive official documents that reflect their lived gender. And without prior sterilisation or other medical procedures. In 2010 that was a remarkable demand, since in many countries, including Switzerland and Germany, the opposite still applied at the time. At the same time, the resolution called for access to gender reassignment treatment for all who want it.
Such a resolution is not legally binding. But it created a benchmark that courts, parliaments and organisations have invoked ever since. A few weeks earlier, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers had already adopted a recommendation along the same lines. It would take years, however, before compulsory sterilisation disappeared in most European countries.