29 March 2012 the Norwegian Supreme Court has given a judgment concerning lgbt asylum seekers. As for determining whether there is a well-founded fear of persecution, the court stated that a gay person cannot be expected to go into the closet again on his/her return to her country of origin, if the reason for doing so is to avoid persecution.

The judgment: http://lovdata.no

International conference on the rights of sexual minorities entitled “Together against Discrimination” took place in Budva, Montenegro on 19 March 2012. The conference was organised by the Government of Montenegro, under the auspices of Prime Minister Igor Lukšić, and supported by the International Academic Conference Justice in the Balkans: Equality for Sexual Minorities, the Lund University Department of Sociology of Law in Lund, Sweden, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and the European Commission on Sexual Orientation Law (ECSOL).

The conference brought together prominent international experts, scholars and human rights advocates from throughout Europe, senior government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of the European Commission and the Council of Europe.

RKL’s application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) made an impact. From 1 January 2012 after long struggle also lesbians, gays and bisexuals will be protected against incitement to hatred. The conservative coalition partner, ÖVP, however also connected this progress to pinprick. The price for extending the offence was it´s castration.

1st December 2011 the Court held a Chamber hearing in the case of X. and Others v. Austria. The case concerns the complaint by two women, who live in a stable homosexual relationship, about the Austrian courts’ refusal to grant one of the partners the right to adopt the son of the other partner without severing the mother’s legal ties with the child (second-parent adoption). The applicants (the two women and the son) are represented by ECSOL-Co-Coordinator and RKL-president, Dr. Helmut Graupner.

Website of the Court: http://www.echr.coe.int
Press release: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int
Webcast: www.echr.coe.int