The Barcelona LGBTI Centre welcomes Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, head of the Council of Europe Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit (SOGI), who visited different facilities and spaces. She was invited by the Platform of LGBTI Entities of Catalonia, the organisation that manages the centre. Later, she met with the organisations that are members of the platform, and the competent authorities in the area of feminisms and LGBTI, at both the municipal and the regional level.
This Monday 28 November, the Barcelona LGBTI Centre received a visit from Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, head of the Council of Europe Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit (SOGI). Giakoumopoulou was invited by the Platform of LGBTI Entities of Catalonia, the managing organisation, and has visited the different facilities and spaces, including the archive collection at the Armand de Fluvià Documentation Centre.
Enric Vilà, Deputy Director of the LGBTI Centre of Barcelona; Olga Arisó, Head of the Department for the Promotion of Women’s and LGBTI Rights at Barcelona City Council; Eduard Corbella Cervelló, representing the Councillor’s Office for Social Rights, Global Justice, Feminisms and LGBTI at Barcelona City Council; Xavier Florensa Cantons, Director General of LGBTI Public Policies at the Generalitat de Catalunya and Xavier Florensa Cantons, Director General of LGBTI Public Policies at the Generalitat de Catalunya welcomed and accompanied the head of the SOGI during her visit. Also present during the visit were members of the organisations Stop SIDA, Casal Lambda, Famílies FLG and AMPGIL, all of them members of the LGBTI Platform.
Subsequently, they began a round of meetings with Giakoumopoulou to share the experience and services offered by the LGBTI Centre, as well as the work and progress of the organisations that make up the platform. Later, the meetings continued, this time with the competent authorities in the field of feminism and LGBTI, to discuss the different policies for the protection of the rights of LGBTI people implemented at municipal and regional levels.
The Council of Europe Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit was set up in 2014, to address the challenges in terms of LGBTI human rights. It provides technical support to EU member states through cooperation activities aimed at improving legal and institutional frameworks, building capacity for law enforcement and promoting good practice.
Some of the specific issues it deals with are the legal recognition of gender, the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity diversity in the workplace, the fight against harassment, LGBTI-phobic hate speech and hate crimes, and multiple discriminations (against lesbian, bisexual and trans women, against LGBTI ethnic minorities, against LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers, or against LGBTI individuals deprived of their liberty).