Greece: Human rights groups call for stronger LGBT discrimination protections
Human rights groups in Greece are calling for comprehensive discrimination protections as racist and homophobic incidents have rapidly increased in the country.
An anti-discrimination bill will be voted on this week, almost three years after it was brought to parliament, but it has been criticised for not being comprehensive enough.
Human rights groups note a surge in racist and homophobic incidents in the country, but said the law was anti-discrimination “in name only”.
Gay rights demonstrators took to the streets earlier in the week to protest against the government’s reluctance to extend rights such as domestic partnerships to same-sex couples.
Right wing MPs have claimed that allowing such rights to same-sex couples could take Greece down an undesirable path.
Anastasios Nerantzis, of the ruling New Democracy party asked: “In Holland there are parties that recognise paedophilia; what are we going to do, adopt it too?”
“There are also brothels that allow bestiality; what are we going to do, adopt that too? Since the third century marriage has been defined only between man and woman,” he continued.
“As such, there is no place for civil unions in Greece.”
More left-leaning politicians have said the refusal to introduce more stringent protections was alarming.
Greece’s ban on same-sex couples from entering civil unions violates the European Convention of Human Rights, a European court has ruled last year, however opposition MPs have noted that little action has been taken.
