Anti-LGBT Hate Group Alliance Defending Freedom Defended State-Enforced Sterilization for Transgender Europeans - 2017-07-27

Anti-LGBT Hate Group Alliance Defending Freedom Defended State-Enforced Sterilization for Transgender Europeans July 27, 2017, Alex Amend, Southern Poverty Law Center

---

The April 2017 decision in A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France was thus no small feat for LGBT activists and their allies. While the court lacks a strong enforcement mechanism, the ruling sets a new legal guideline for all 47 countries party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including 20 that still have sterilization laws on the books.

But back on July 1, 2015, ADF International filed an intervention (similar to an amicus brief in U.S. courts) in the ECtHR arguing that the court should not decide in favor of the petitioners. Instead, ADF International attorneys Roger Kiska and Robert Clarke argued, much like their colleagues in the context of the U.S., that anti-discrimination protections and rights to privacy outlined in the ECHR do not extend to the LGBT community and, in this case specifically, transgender Europeans (Kiska is now with the London-based Christian Legal Centre).

In the intervention brief, Kiska and Clarke warned against "human rights imperialism," a contested term used primarily in the context of Western efforts in Africa and Asia (as opposed to the ECtHR in which each European country is a member and plays a role in seating judges), and argued that the court should afford a wide "margin of appreciation" — an ECtHR doctrine that seeks to balance political and social realities across Europe in its rulings — in this case.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = Alex | last = Amend | title = Anti-LGBT Hate Group Alliance Defending Freedom Defended State-Enforced Sterilization for Transgender Europeans | url = https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/07/27/anti-lgbt-hate-group-alliance-defending-freedom-defended-state-enforced-sterilization | work = Southern Poverty Law Center | date = July 27, 2017 | accessdate = October 6, 2020 }}