The hearing is organised by the European Parliament in accordance with Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2019/788 on the European Citizens’ Initiative, which provides citizens with a formal mechanism to bring policy proposals directly to EU institutions.
Citizens call for EU-wide legal action
Signatories of the ECI are urging the European Commission to propose binding legislation banning conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ people across the European Union. These practices are defined as interventions aimed at changing, repressing, or suppressing a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
According to the initiative’s organisers, such practices are discriminatory, degrading, harmful, and fraudulent. The United Nations has qualified them as a form of torture, and a growing number of countries worldwide have already introduced bans.
Emphasising the EU’s responsibility to protect fundamental rights, the ECI calls on the Commission to:
Propose a directive adding conversion practices to the list of EU crimes (euro-crimes), and/or amend the ongoing Equality Directive to explicitly ban these practices; Enforce a non-binding resolution calling for a widespread ban across the EU; Amend the Victims’ Rights Directive to establish minimum standards for the rights, support, and protection of victims of conversion practices; Encourage all Member States to introduce national bans or review existing legislation.