Prioritised areas 2018-2021
Here is a short summary of RFSL's prioritised areas 2018-2021.
Asylum and migration
According to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 14, all people have the right to seek and obtain asylum from persecution in another country. RFSL works for that LGBTQI people who flee persecution should have the right to asylum in Sweden. The development towards a stricter asylum- and migration policy in Sweden does not meet the demands of humanity and rule of law. Together with our partners and umbrella organisations, like for example ILGA Europe and FARR, RFSL works to improve the common European asylum- and migration policy.
A family policy for all
There should never be any unreasonable obstacles in legislation and praxis that make it impossible for LGBTQI people to start a family in a way that is desired or to live safely in the families that have been chosen. Children can never be a right, but children have a right to their families and parents. Because of that, the parental legislation needs to be reviewed and be made gender neutral, in order to meet the needs of modern family constellations and provide safety for all families. It needs to be assured that everybody should be able to live their lives as they wish, with or without children, without being hindered by normative laws or regulations.
Trans and intersex issues
A lot needs to be done in society in order to achieve a simplified existence and improved health for trans- and intersex people:
– Everybody, regardless of age, should have the right to determine their legal gender without demands for medical treatment, surgical procedures, diagnosis or other demands such as a certain kind of assessment. To change one’s legal gender should be a simple administrative process based on a personal self-identification. People under the age of 18 should be able to change legal gender without a legal guardian’s consent.
– It should be easy for trans people in need of gender affirming care to get access to it. The care should be built on respect, and should be based on the individual’s needs and the right to influence the execution of that care.
– Intersex people, people born with atypical sex characteristics, are often denied bodily self-determination through examinations, and in some cases genital mutilation and hormone treatments, being carried out with the purpose of assigning them a physical and legal gender that suits society’s norms. Medically unmotivated procedures for, and treatment of, intersex people who have not given their own consent should therefore be prohibited in Sweden.
Senior citizens
Older LGBTQI people in need of care should not have to hide their identity from a caregiver. All staff in geriatric care need to have basic LGBTQI competency. RFSL views positively the initiatives taken for specific housing and care for older LGBTQI people. More research around older LGBTQI people’s situation and needs in Sweden is needed.