Subject: [euroletter] PRESS RELEASE from ILGA-Europe
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 19:37:18 +0100 (MET)

20th ILGA-Europe Conference successfully concluded

Sunday 25 October 1998, the 20th ILGA-Europe conference concluded in Linz, 
Austria. 100 delegates from 26 European countries participated in the annual 
convention organised and hosted this year by Homosexuelle Initiative(HOSI)Linz.

In the four-day conference, ILGA-Europe discussed new actions and lobbying 
activities in respect of the Council of Europe, the European Union and the OSCE 
as well as activities to increase the visibility and development of the 
organisation. In response to the award to ILGA-Europe of consultative status 
with the Council of Europe last January, an Action Plan was developed which 
includes lobbying for explicit reference to `sexual orientation' in the expected 
new broadened Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights currently 
under preparation.

ILGA-Europe also approved a Europe-wide campaign to screen all candidates in the 
1999 election for the post of secretary-general of the Council of Europe with 
regard to their record concerning sexual orientation discrimination. It will 
campaign against the nomination of any candidate who has a record of opposing 
the implementation of measures which are in line with the human rights standards 
of the Council of Europe, and will therefore oppose the nomination of Walter 
Schwimmer, who has repeatedly voted in the Austrian parliament against measures 
to grant fundamental human rights to lesbians and gays.

ILGA-Europe will carry on with the implementation of its work programme directed 
at the European Union, including further involvement in the working of the 
European Parliament Equal Rights for Gays and Lesbians Intergroup and lobbying 
for a draft directive on equal treatment of lesbians and gay men as a measure to 
implement Article 13 TEC as amended by the Amsterdam Treaty.

The Conference agreed that ILGA-Europe and its member organisations should 
continue to develop their co-operation with other human rights and social NGOs 
both on the European and the national levels.

A series of important Austrian politicians addressed the conference.Federal 
President Thomas Klestil sent a message of greeting to the delegates, and 
Federal Chancellor Viktor Klima took on the honorary patronage of the 
conference. Federal Minister of Women's Affairs, Barbara Prammer, addressed the 
conference on behalf of the Chancellor during the reception given by the 
Minister President of Upper Austria and the Lord Mayor of Linz on 21 October.

Three members of the Austrian Parliament, from the Social Democratic, the 
Liberal and the Green Parties, gave speeches in the opening ceremony. Another
Social Democratic member of the Austrian Parliament spoke at the ceremony held 
on 23 October in the former concentration camp of Mauthausen to commemorate
the gay and lesbian victims of nazi terror.

The host organisation, HOSI Linz, through an extensive scholarship programme,
enabled the participation of many delegates from Central and Eastern European
countries. This resulted in the highest ever percentage of delegates from
this part of Europe in an ILGA European or World conference. Participants
from Albania took part for the first time.

Viareggio in Italy was selected as the venue for the 1999 conference, the host 
organisation being Arcigay Pride! of Pisa. Bucharest was tentatively chosen as 
the venue for the year 2000.

A new executive board of ILGA-Europe was also elected, its members being:
Jackie Lewis (UNISON, UK), Maren Wuch (lglf, Cologne, Germany), Nico Beger 
(Lesbian caucus in the Green Party, Germany), Tatjana Greif (SKUC-Lesbian
Group, Ljubljana, Slovenia), Adrian Coman (ACCEPT, Bucharest), Alberto Volpato
Egalite), Kurt Krickler (HOSI Wien, Austria) and Steffen Jensen (LBL, Denmark).

ILGA-Europe is the European regional organisation of the International Lesbian 
and Gay Association, a federation of around 400 member groups in more than 75 
countries in the World.

More information is available via email: [email-masked] or from:
Jackie Lewis, phone: +44-171 926 4771
Kurt Krickler, phone: +43-1-545 13 10
Nico Beger, phone: +49-551-486 521
Steffen Jensen, phone: +45-2033 0840

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