Board members offer a hand of help
The
first who took the floor before Board members was organisation’s
Executive Director Anastasia Danilova. She presented preliminary
results of the concluding financial year and briefly touched upon the
submitted project proposals for the next year. A detailed report on
expenditures will appear later – closer to the end of the year and will
be presented at the General Assembly of organisation members. What
regards financial support of activities planned for 2013, main funders
will be the same. However, the volume of the sponsorship is being
clarified. According to Anastasia Danilova, the largest part of this year’s budget was directed to the sponsorship of the LGBT Health and Social Well-Being Programme and to the LGBT Lobby and Advocacy Programme. Thus, as a self-critique, she voiced a thought that organisation’s capacity building isn’t being paid enough attention to. Estimating the situation objectively, however, it is noteworthy that during the past year GENDERDOC-M has only strengthened its role as a resource centre for LGBT organisations in the post-Soviet space. Human rights defenders from Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan have received quality support in the field of organisational development having participated in seminars and trainings held by the GENDERDOC-M staff.
Having highly estimated this year’s achievements of GENDERDOC-m staff, Board members noted some shortcomings, too. In particular, they expressed a wish to be more often involved in organisation’s daily activity. At the meeting of the governing body, it was decided that they would meet in the same composition more often than once a year – to stay more informed and to help solve timely problems related to the implementation of organisation’s strategic plan more actively.
That’s why litigations are strategic…
During
several past years and especially this year, particular emphasis was
made on strategic litigations. We have written on and talked about them
on numerous occasions. However, each month there appear new court
judgments, claims, new victories and losses… To now, about ten of cases are categorized as strategic ones. In particular, the case on domestic violence and discrimination is pending in court. Appealing it, human rights defenders hope to change the judgment of the first instance which gave custody over a child to her biological father who had beaten and tormented the mother in front of the child (it was exactly the mother who went to court).
The litigation of claims submitted by two transgender persons demanding the State registry Office to change gender mark in their IDs is pending, too. Despite the fact that court of the first instance had released a judgment in favour of claimants, Chisinau Court of Appeals returned the case to additional examination. Meanwhile, GENDERDOC-M is preparing a new collective case from transgender individuals who demand change of their IDs, too.
Lately, more and more new claims to court and, respectively, strategic litigations regard incitements to discrimination and hatred against LGBT people. There are four cases concerning this article that are being examined by Chisinau courts (three claims have submitted against particular individuals and one against a Website, Moldova Noastra). Besides this, a new claim against recent discourse by a representative of Moldovan Orthodox Church, Bishop of Balti and Falesti Markel, is being prepared. By the way, it will be the second litigation between the human rights defenders and homophobes examined in Balti Court of Appeal. The thirst one was initiated with regard to the proclamation of local city authorities who had decided to call the municipality a zone free from “aggressive propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations”.
We’ll see later whose side the court will take. Meanwhile, the human rights defenders have already gained positive results appealing to the article “Hate speech and incitement to discrimination”. First of all, it the victory of the claim submitted in 2011 by GENDERDOC-M against Anatol Plugaru, ex-Minister of State Security. The ex-official had allowed himself a public statement where he called on discrimination against LGBT citizens. Recently, the court has released a judgment where it bound the defendant to compensate moral damages to the claimants as well as to compensate plaintiffs’ court expenses.
One cannot but remind about the lawsuit regarding the violation of the right to freedom of expression – the claim submitted by the Christian Orthodox organisation “Fericita Maica Matrona” and its accessory interveners. The claim demanded administration of the national public TV channel “Moldova-1” to refuse screening of a documentary on gay rights. In mid August, the Supreme Court of Justice released final judgment rejecting plaintiffs’ claim due to the lack of clearly justified demands.
The lawsuit initiated by human rights defender and journalist Oleg Brega against the Website PRIVESC.EU, whose chat room moderators and participants had insulted and threatened with physical violence Oleg Brega, also concluded with victory. All court instances up to the Supreme Court of Justice took side of the citizen whose rights had been infringed.
Continuing enumeration of the litigations won by defenders of human rights of LGBT people, it is also worth to note the case when a felon was charged with a suspension term for the hate crime against a gay man.
Having briefly described progress of each case, Lobby and Advocacy Programme Coordinator Angela Frolov noted that all these litigations will help later build legal relations between general public and LGBT community members. Taking into consideration the fact that beginning from 1 January the mechanism for implementation of the Law on Ensuring Equality is to come into force, human rights defenders are already preparing to competently work in the interests of their beneficiaries. And considering recent demands of religious leaders to refuse employment to gay people based, in fact, on speculations, organisation’s employees and lawyers will have to fight for their own space “under the sun”.
Pride 2013 will last five and not three days
Next
year GENDERDOC-M turns 15. With this regard, it was decided to hold
the Rainbow over the Dniester festival with a larger scale, and will
last five and not three days. For 14-19 May, there are planned various and interesting activities. Besides traditional events such as opening and closing ceremonies, there will be held:
A photo exhibition from Kiev, Ukraine;
Wide launching campaign of the project EGALI.MD;
Public discussions on homophobia and homophobes;
Conference on partnership and its value;
Human Library;
Opening of the museum;
Theatre performance;
Safer Sex Promotion Party;
A public action;
Contest Mr. Făt-Frumos and others.
Let’s look deeper at what team GENDERDOC-M is preparing. So, Website EGALI.MD is a kind of a realm where all speak about the necessity to wipe off homophobia. The Internet has already several similar resources which local content developers are going to be looking at. It is planned to upload video messages from different people calling on general public to wipe off homophobia and especially protect children, who have realised they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, from it. They will comprise doctors, performers, journalists, officials and artists who celebrate diversity and who are not indifferent to LGBT youngsters – those who are more subject to stress, depression and attempt suicide more often than their peers.
Another interesting event is the conference whose preliminary title is “Partnership Is the Key to Success”. The conference participants will comprise foreign and local partners who GENDERDOC-M has worked with throughout those 15 years. GENDERDOC-M believes that all these successes have been possible thanks to the synergy generated by numerous and various organisations. With this conference, team GENDERDOC-M wants to prove once again that its success is the success of beneficiaries, colleagues from other countries, funders and participants of the common process of achieving equality of rights in Moldova, including for LGBT people.
Organisers are planning to tell more about the museum, theatre performance and public action later. What regards the contest Mr. Făt-Frumos, it will replace the traditional drag queen contest at the Rainbow over the Dniester 2013 festival.
2012-10-22
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