WELCOME PACK
Contents
Introduction
Welcome to the Grundtvig
Learning Partnership Seminar “Being an LGBTI Parent as an experience of Democracy and Active Citizenship” which is
hosted by the Finnish Partner. The
seminar is called: LGBT family rights,
strategic litigation and the European Court of Human Rights and takes
place at Helsinki on 20 and 21 September
2013.
Partner organisations
The Grundtvig Project can only be carried out thanks to the dedication
and involvement of the partner organizations:
Associação ILGA Portugal - Grupo Arco-Íris
Associazione Famiglie Arcobaleno
Kosmos Horis Polemous Kai Via (Gr)
Regenbogenfamilien (CH)
Sateenkaariperheet (FI)
The workshop on legal issues
Objective
The objective of the workshop on LGBT family rights, strategic litigation and the European Court
of Human Rights is to equip
you as activists with the tools to understand and implement strategies that may
achieve equality of LGBTI families with children. The key concept is EMPOWERMENT, that is to
“bestow or give” power to LGBTI PARENTS so that they may recognise
situations, identify resources and organize actions to assert their family and
parental rights and to expand them.
Medium
The way to achieve this objective is through learning
and training on how to use European Law at local level. Therefore, the delivery mode is through
preparation work and the use of role-play, discussion groups and teamwork to
solve scenarios.
You have been sent copies of the following court
decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): Mouta v Portugal, EB v France, Gas et Dubois, X & ots v
Austria, SH & ots v Austria.
These are required reading, this means that you
must have read those decisions before arriving in order to take away as much as
possible from the workshop. The
presenters have worked hard in preparing the sessions; therefore, it is
important that you recognise their work by reading and preparing adequately.
Each partner
was given a questionnaire in advance.
The resulting report provides a snapshot of the situation in each
country. This is a valuable tool to
trigger discussion and seeing what we
are working with in terms of substantive rights, gaps and priorities for each
Partner. The snapshot will show
whether a State is doing what is required by the Convention and the caselaw of the ECHR, not complying or whether the issue has
not been dealt with.
Timetable
Helsinki 19 to 21 September 2013
Arrival Thursday 19.09.13
Take
bus 615 from Helsinki airport (which leaves from platform 2 at terminal 1
and from platform 21 at terminal 2) to the city centre. Get off at the
railway station.
Check
in at Omena Hotel (Yrjonkatu - 300 metres from the Railway station. You
need to key the code you received by email in order to check in.
Friday 20.09.13 at 9am to 5pm
Seminar at Room Koivu of Hotel Helka, address: Pohjoinen Rautatienkatu
23
Session 0:
9.00 – 9.15
Welcome: by
Emmi Pihlajaniemi on behalf of the Finnish Grundtvig Partner
Announcements
Introductions
by each individual participant and guests
Session 1:
9.15 – 9.50
Stock-taking,
priorities in each Partner Country – leader: Angelo Berbotto
Each
partner has responded to a questionnaire in advance. The
information collected provides a snapshot of the situation in each
country. In this section we discuss commonalities, differences,
strategies used in the past.
This
exercise will allow us to see what we are working with in terms of substantive
rights, gaps and priorities for each Partner. The snapshot will
show whether a State is doing what is required by the caselaw, or not complying
or the issue has not been dealt with.
Checklist
areas: Adoption as an individual, within the couple as second parent and joint
an unrelated child, including international available? Donor
insemination, available? Also to Single women? Only to married different sex ?
or unmarried different sex? Surrogacy: what do you do when children come into
the country – do you facilitate, it? priorities in each Partner's country.
Session 2 -
9.50 – 11.00
The
Convention and LGBT parents – does EU law add anything? - leader
Professor Wintemute
At
the conclusion of this workshop, you will be able to answer the following
questions. The workshop is delivered in an interactive manner and your
questions and input are welcome.
1.Basic
definitions: Europe and the European Union.
2.
Why is there so much lack of uniformity in Europe and the EU on LGBTI parenting
issues?
3.
Why doesn't Europe legislate on LGBTI parenting and equality?
4.
What does the Convention offer to LGBTI parents?
5.
Why are the decisions of the ECHR relevant to LGBTI parents?
6.
What are the obligations of the States after the ECHR or the ECJ rule on an
issue?
7.
How can the decisions of the ECHR and the ECJ help change the rights of LGBT
families in individual States?
8.
Are there any other EU legislation relevant to LGBT families?
11:00 – 11.20
coffee break
Session 3
- 11:20 - 12:00
How
does a case end up in the ECHR in Strasbourg? leader: Marta Ramos – Ilga
Portugal
The
decisions of the ECHR are binding on the 47 European States - but how does a
case end up in Strasbourg? In this seminar Marta Ramos will tell us about
the a Portuguese case that is now in the ECHR. The narrative of the case
will provide a concrete example to understand the process of bringing a case to
Strasbourg and at the conclusion of this seminar you will have learned
about:
1.
the concept of exhausting domestic remedies - what needs to happen before you
even consider going to the ECHR
2.
lodging the application
3.
the admissibility criteria of the ECHR
3.
the procedure
Optional
reading:
Session
4 12:00 – 13:00
Essential
European Family Law – Leader: Michele Giarratano – Famiglie Arcobaleno
In
this interactive seminar you will have the opportunity to discuss and the five
decisions of the ECHR in relation to parental and family rights that are the
essential reading:
1.
Mouta v Portugal,
2.
EB v France,
3.
Gas et Dubois,
4.
X & ots v Austria and
5.
SH & ots v Austria.
13:00-14:45 - lunch at Hotel Helka's restaurant
(buffet) take your belongings as we are not coming back to Hotel Helka.
Session 5 15:00 – 17:00 at
Satennkaariperheet's office, Yrjonkatu 29A.
Country presentations
In this session one or more activists/lawyers present a short presentation
about domestic cases where principles from case law of the ECHR or ECJ have
been applied or discussed.
It is hoped that this session will offer an opportunity to develop
understanding on how the domestic courts may use the decisions of the European
Courts in order to develop the law in their own jurisdictions.
LGBT parenting in the partners’ States 15 min presentations:
15:00 to 15:20: Finland - Linda Hart
15:20 to 15:40: Switzerland - Eylem Copur
15:40 to 16:00: Greece - to be confirmed
16:00 to 16:20: Portugal - to be confirmed
16:20 to 16:40: Italy - Michele Giarriatano
16:40 closing remarks and announcements - end of session
Dinner at your
leisure. At 8pm you are welcome to come and meet at Satennkaariperheet's
office, Yrjonkatu 29A.
Saturday 21.09.13 at 9am to 1pm
at Satennkaariperheet's office, Yrjonkatu 29A.
Session
6 9:00 – 10:30 -- please be at the venue at 08.55
Team-work - leader: Angelo Berbotto
Small groups of 3 or 4 are given a scenario – each team will have
to advise their client and device a strategy to advance their client’s case.
10:30 – 11:30: group presentations on feedback from seminars
Groups present their case study and there will be Q & A.
Session
7 11:30 – 12:45
Projecting into the future --- the landscape of LGBT family and parental
rights in Europe by 2015 and 2020
The main objective of this workshop is to project what the landscape
of LGBT parental and family rights will be in 2015 and 2020. This
may be achieved by analyzing the trends both at individual country level and
trends in Europe.
Leader: Professor Wintemute
Closing:
Angelo Berbotto and Emmi Pihlajaniemi
13:00
Lunch at restaurant Kaarn, Mannerheimintie 20
15:00 - 18:00 Grundtvig project meeting at Satennkaariperheet's
office, Yrjonkatu 29A.
Outcome of the Workshop
The outcome of the workshop will be a booklet for
LGBTI parents. And your input through
the sessions will be recorded and fed into the booklet. Therefore, remember the three Ps:
Prepare… so that you will be aware of the issues
Participate… by sharing your ideas, asking questions
and listening to the experience and ideas of your fellow delegates and finally
Profit by making the most of this meeting with
inspiring activists that have given freely of their time, talent and experience
to share it with you.
Who is coming?
Presenters
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Robert Wintemute is a Professor of Human Rights Law
at King’s College, University of London since 1991 after practising as an Associate in
the Bankruptcy Department at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley
& McCloy LLP in New York, 1982-87. Professor Wintemute was educated at
The University of Alberta.
|
In 1982 he gained his LL.B and BCL from McGill
University where he was awarded the Aime Geoffrion Gold Medal for highly
distinguished standing. Professor Wintemute was awarded his D.Phil from
the University of Oxford in 1993. He has
been instrumental in advising and representing LGBT parents in the ECHR. He is a recognised as an authority worldwide
in the area of LGBT Family Law and anti-discrimination.
Angelo Berbotto
|
Angelo was born in Uruguay.
He is a solicitor admitted to practice in England and Wales and he
works in Child Protection representing Social Services in cases where
children need to be removed from the care of their families because of risk
of significant harm. He holds an
LLB(Hons) from the University of
.
 |
Technology,
Sydney, qualifying as a solicitor in Australia in 2005. He later obtained an LLM in Children's Law at
La Sapienza University in Rome thanks to a scholarship granted from the Italian government.
Angelo’s master’s research focused on children in same-sex families and the
inadequacy of Italian Law to deal effectively with these ‘non-traditional’
families. His research paper on same-sex families obtained
the first place in the Maria Baiocchi
2008 competition on Italian LGBT
studies in the post-graduate category.
Angelo
has been a member and supporter of the Italian same-sex parents Association, Famiglie
Arcobaleno since 2007. In 2012 he
become the secretary of the Network of
European LGBT Families’ Associations www.nelfa.org
having been involved since its very beginning in 2008.
Michele Giarratano
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Michele is 31 years old and an Italian “avvocato”
(lawyer). Born in Sicily, Michele
moved to Bologna where he completed his studies, obtaining an LLM in
2003. In 2004, Michele started working as an activist at LGBT NGO
Cassero (www.cassero.it)
in Bologna becoming the manager the NGO’s Legal Department in 2006. In 2011he took on the management of Arcigay’s legal department. Michele is a member and supporter of the
Italian same-sex parents Association, Famiglie Arcobaleno since 2011
right after his wedding to his
Italian husband, Sergio, in Oslo,
since marriage is not available in Italy.
 |
Michele also co-ordinates the LGBT Department of Law
International (an NGO who is part of FRA’s roundtable) and he is the vice-chairman
of NGO Frame (http://www.associazioneframe.it/english-version.html)
and a member of other human rights NGOs.
Michele commutes between Bologna and Rome, working as
a lawyer in Family and Children’s Law and in Anti-discrimination Law. Michele works on a daily basis both as an
activist and as a lawyer for equality of lgbt people and same-sex parents in
Italy.
Marta Ramos
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Marta holds a Law degree and a Masters in Human Rights and
Democratisation. Her research thesis
was on transgender persons and family rights, namely the issues
of forced sterilisation and lack of custody rights of their children in
case of forced divorced. Marta
focused on the impact of legal
recognition of transgender persons on their gender identity.
Marta works at ILGA Portugal where she
is involved in cases dealing with parenting and parental rights.
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Marta manages the Discrimination Watch (Observatório da
Discriminação) which collects data on
cases reported in the area of discrimination on the grounds of sexual
orientation and gender identity. Marta
has also been involved in the recent political debate in Portugal around the
recognition of second parent adoption.
Participants
Isabel Fiadeiro Advirta
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Isabel Fiadeiro Advirta
lives in Lisbon with her wife,
their daughter and their sweetest cat.
Her academic background is in communication. Isabel works for Lisbon’s city
council.
Isabel has been a member of the board of ILGA Portugal
since 2002. She has played an
active role in ILGA Portugal’s political intervention group and in the women’s
group.
Nowadays,
Isabel co-ordinates the Rainbow Families group as well as remaining involved in a whole lot of activities.
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Isabel is very committed to helping make the world a better place for
our children and she believes this can be achieved by advancing human rights
issues.
Peneleppe Caouni
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Penelope Caouni was born in Athens, Greece, she holds a Master’s
degree in Computer Engineering and Informatics. Penelope has been involved in activism
since 2012 with the organization Colour Youth, LGBTQ Youth Community of
Athens. Soon afterwards, she joined the board of Colour Youth board of which she became the
chair in December 2012.
With Colour Youth, Penelope has worked with various organizations and
on online campaigning and organizing street actions, etc.
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Penelope’s role includes
capacity building activities, strategic planning, as well as other activities
aiming to reassure the organization’s proper functioning and sustainability. Penelope says that through Colour Youth’s
weekly meetings, she has come to see in a very tangible way what a struggle it
can be for young people to come to terms with their sexuality.
Eylem Copur
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Eylem holds a PhD in Law and is a lecturer
and researcher at the University of Applied Sciences Zurich (ZHAW) and a
lawyer. Her PhD thesis dealt with parenthood, child’s best interest and gay
couples. She worked together with Andrea Büchler in the field of Legal
Gender Studies.
Currently, she
focuses on discrimination cases. Together with Prof. Ivo Schwander
she finished a survey on surrogate motherhood and its legal recognition in Switzerland.
She is involved in the legalization
process of same sex couples and is counsel in the case at the European
Court of human rights for same sex stepparent adoption by a lesbian
couple.
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Elena Diamantopoulou
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Elena
Diamantopoulou was born in Athens, Greece. She graduated from the Faculty of
Communication and Media Studies – University of Athens. In 2010, she was a volunteer for
Athens Pride Festival. Back then she
met the person in charge of Pride volunteers and together they
decided to create a new NGO in Athens for LGBTQ young people which they
called Colour Youth – LGBTQ Youth Community of Athens. In the last 3 years she has been a board
member, communication officer and project manager of the NGO.
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Elena is interested in how
art can be a significant part of human rights' representation and at the same
time on the healing process of discrimination victims.
Rita Duarte
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Rita
holds a law degree and she is a lawyer in private practise. She also co-ordinates ILGA Portugal's
Legal Department. Rita advises on a
wide range of cases involving LGBT clients including same-sex couples seeking advice on parenting
rights, in particular cases involving legal recognition of one of the
parents or issues relating to the adoption process.
Rita
was involved in the drafting process of the class action that ILGA Portugal
presented against the State of Portugal for the recognition of co-parenting
rights for same sex families.
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Lisa Green
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Lisa was born and raised in the
USA. She is a psychologist and
family therapist specialised in Rainbow Family research and counselling.
She obtained a Master’s in Psychology at the University of Konstanz,
Germany and a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Basel,
Switzerland. Lisa and her same-sex
partner conceived by donor insemination three children who are now 17, 13
and 11 years old.
Lisa became an activist in 1995
when her first child was born. She
pioneered a lesbian parenting group and in 2005 created a network for
rainbow families known in Germany.
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Combining her personal and
professional interests, Lisa conducted The German Lesbian Family Study and began
offering lesbian family planning counselling, including infertility.
Lisa continues working for the
advancement of LGBT Family equality through her involvement as board member of both
the Germany Federation of Lesbian and Gays (LSVD) and NELFA.
Lisa is the author of numerous
scientific articles on lesbian parenting and holds talks and workshops for
rainbow families. She also heads a private family therapy practise in Konstanz,
Germany offering counselling services to all families.
Juha-Pekka Hippi
Juha-Pekka is the chairman of Seta
LGBTI Finland since the beginning
of 2013. He was previously on the board of
Seta for two years. Juha-Pekka is a lawyer and he has advised on cases
involving LGBTI issues concerning hate
crimes in criminal law as well as refugee issues and residence permits.
Sini Huttunen
Sini was born in Helsinki and lived abroad in
in Russia, the USA and the UK for several years. Sini
currently Iives in Helsinki with her partner and their three children. Sini studied both Art & Design and
Administrative Science. She runs her own web & graphic design
company since the year 2000. Sini was on
the board of the Finnish Rainbow Families’
association from 2007 to 2012. She
remains involved as a volunteer and works
on different projects concerning Rainbow
Families and their children.
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Juha Jämsä is the Executive Director of
the Finnish Rainbow Families Association
(Sateenkaariperheet).
He studied sociology of the family and has
conducted numerous studies in the field of gendered parenthood, gay fathers
and the welfare services in relation to Finnish rainbow families.
Juha is the vice-president of NELFA. He has three teenagers with his husband.
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Konstantina Kosmidou
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Konstantina
Kosmidou was born in Drama, Greece in 1972. She studied Business
Administration, and is currently completing her final year of Political Studies at the
University of Athens. She used to work as a tourist guide and now works
full time for the Green Party of Greece.
Konstantina
lives in Piraeus with her wife and
they have recently become foster parents to
two wonderful kids with special needs. Konstantina started working with several NGOs in 1987,
fighting against discrimination and promoting respect for
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human rights. In the last ten years, Konstantina has dealt with gender and sexual orientation
issues and more recently mainly with LGBT family issues. Her goal is to change
the public opinion about equality for LGBTI rights in Greece and for that
reason she lobbies the political parties. She has managed to create the first
inter LGBTI group in the Greek Parliament in collaboration with MPs and her
vision is to push the LGBTI agenda especially during the following Greek EU Presidency
at the beginning of 2014.
Konstantina
has been on the board of OLKE, the gay and lesbian community of Greece, since
2005 and she is OLKE’s current president, as such, her mission is to foster regional solidarity
and co-operation. During her terms as president, the Greek government agreed to
fund the first Greek LGBT helpline “1528” for sexual orientation and gender
identity issues.
Konstantina is
also on the board of NELFA, where she is responsible in assisting the Southeast European Region.
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Emmi is Finnish and is married to Elisa who is Italian. They have three small children. Emmi is at currently a full-time mum and
will be returning back to her job as
a social counsellor for the City of Helsinki.
Emmi has been active in the Finnish
organisation for Rainbow Families since the birth of Emmi and
Elisa’s second child.
Emmi is currently the president of the Rainbow Families’ Association. |
Emmi makes sure that there is a balance
between on one hand the social and fun aspect
of the association and activities for the families and on the other hand the more serious work such as legal issues
that concern rainbow families. Emmi’s
interested on international issues affecting Rainbow Families, partly because
of her own very international family with links to Italy and Finland and their two different legislations!
Maria Von Känel
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Maria
was born in England and grew up near Zurich, in Switzerland. She has been with her partner Martina since 1997, registering their
partnership in 2007. Maria and
Martina have two small children.
Maria’s background is in IT and activism. Maria is co-founder and the General
Manager of the Swiss Rainbow Families Association.
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In 2009, Maria helped launch the
petition “Equal Opportunities for All Families” which was successful in
starting a public and political debate on this topic. In March 2013, the Swiss Parliament approved
a Bill that when passed will grant protection to several thousand children
growing up in Rainbow Families in Switzerland.
Maria is passionate about educating
people about LGBT families. She has
worked in international projects and is an emeritus board member of NELFA. She was instrumental in developing visibility of rainbow families through a
world-wide event, the “International Family Equality Day”
which is now an established date in the calendar of Rainbow families
worldwide. Maria’s contagious enthusiasm
is matched by her efficiency and management skills.
Martina Von Känel
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Martina lives with her registered
partner and their two children near Zürich.
Martina is a social worker and co-founder and board member of the
Swiss Rainbow Families Association, which since 2010 presents a united
front across Switzerland in matters relating to Rainbow Families. Martina is responsible for lobbying
and co-ordinating the mailings to
members of Parliament, which proved successful as at the time the Swiss Parliament
voted on the Stepchild adoption Bill, there was
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a clear majority of MPs in favour. Martina is also responsible for counselling
LGBT families on a wide range of topics.
She delivers workshops on family planning for LGBT parents, legal issues,
coming-out, etc. Martina has been
involved in producing new resources such as
“Rainbow families: A brochure –
not just for caregivers, teachers and professionals” in conjunction with the Office for Gender
Equality of the City of Zurich.
Martina is looking forward to
exchanging experiences with other activists and learning how LGBT families live
and work in other parts of Europe.
Fabienne Schnyder
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Fabienne and her female partner live near Zurich
with their son Julin. Fabienne is a primary and secondary school teacher
in Switzerland with over fourteen years experience. Fabienne has always been interested in social issues and as a teacher and educator she considers it
her duty to take responsibility and promoting open-mindedness in her own classroom and
in schools in general.
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Fabienne has been an active member of
the Swiss Rainbow Families Association since 2011, Julin was born. Shea has taken
part in different projects, workshops and conferences organized by the Swiss Rainbow
Families Association.
Heidi Setälä
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Heidi is a student of Nursing
Science at the School of Health Sciences at Tampere University, where she is also
undertaking a minor in administrative science.
She is currently working on
research on Children in Rainbow Families.
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Ilaria was born in Vicenza, and lived in Venice
for 19 years. She
lives in Bologna with her wife and
their 8-year-old daughter. Ilaria
works in theatre management having toured for years around Europe with a
circus theatre company. She is also
a consultant on projects financed by the EU.
Ilaria
is an outspoken and fearless activist of Famiglie Arcobaleno, the Rainbow
Families of Italy. She is frequently asked to speak in
formal settings to politicians and other authorities.
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Ilaria
is passionate about equality for LGBT families in Italy which has fallen behind
in relation to the progress achieved in the rest of Europe.
As an LGBT activist for years, Ilaria has been
delivering training to teachers and lecturers (from nursery to university) on
how to tackle homophobia and how to make schools welcoming towards children of
lgbt parents, she has created training courses and resources, and helped
institutions, universities, professionals and associations network with each
other on LGBT family issues.
Ilaria
has combined her passion for theatre and activism in some special projects such
as the theatre festival for young people which dealt with sexual orientation
and gender roles and has developed workshops for children to teach about those
same issues through playing.
Ilaria
has put her skills to the service of European LGBT families by identifying,
drafting and submitting projects funded by the EU such as this Grundtvig
Project in order to facilitate exchange and building common strategies amongst
the Rainbow Families of Europe.
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