\n<\/p>\n
Recent changes to Slovakia\u2019s constitution mark a \u201cdark day\u201d for the country, LGBTQ+ campaigners have warned, describing measures such as the recognition of only two sexes as part of a wider rollback of human rights and rule of law in the central European country.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Slovakia\u2019s parliament passed an amendment that included measures targeting LGBTQ+ rights in the country, from stipulating that male and female are the only recognised sexes to making it nearly impossible for same-sex couples to adopt children.<\/p>\n
In the days since, more than 100 calls and emails have poured into the office of Iniciat\u00edva Inakos\u0165, the country\u2019s leading advocacy organisation for LGBTQ+ equality.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are frightened, anxious, and feel powerless, as they have become hostages of politicians through this amendment,\u201d said Martin Macko, the organisation\u2019s executive director. \u201cThe amendment explicitly bans legal gender recognition \u2013 (it\u2019s) directly attacking the lives of transgender and intersex people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vote suggested that Slovakia was following in the footsteps of Russia, where same-sex couples have been banned from adopting children and mentions of LGBTQ+ issues are prohibited, as well as Hungary, where the country\u2019s ruling Fidesz party, led by rightwing populist Viktor Orb\u00e1n, has taken aim at LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis amendment threatens Slovakia\u2019s EU membership and brings us even closer to authoritarian Russia,\u201d said Macko. \u201cThe paradox is that these measures were adopted at a time when acceptance of LGBT+ people in Slovak society is growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since returning to power in 2023, the government led by the populist Robert Fico has targeted the community, ushering in measures such as the elimination of public funding for projects related to LGBTQ+ people. \u201cIt is part of his shift towards far-right politics, which he framed as a bulwark against progressivism \u2026 Some conservative MPs even justified their vote for the amendment by saying this was their \u2018last chance\u2019 to prevent LGBT+ people from achieving equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The director of Amnesty International Slovakia, Rado Sloboda, described the changes as \u201cdevastating news\u201d, noting that the amendment would pit the country\u2019s constitution in \u201cdirect conflict\u201d with international law.<\/p>\n
In a statement addressing what the organisation called \u201cdraconian\u201d constitutional amendments, Sloboda described it as \u201canother dark day for Slovakia, which is already facing a series of cascading attacks on human rights and the rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The organisation had long warned that the constitutional changes \u2013 which build on 2023 legislation that blocked legal recognition for trans people \u2013 were part of a broader attempt by authorities to roll back rights in Slovakia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation for marginalised groups in Slovakia \u2013 including LGBTI people \u2013 is already dire. These amendments rub salt into the wound,\u201d said Sloboda. \u201cInstead of attacking human rights, the authorities should address the lack of legal protection for all families, marriage equality, and the rights of transgender and non-binary people, including access to healthcare and legal gender recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sign up to This is Europe<\/span><\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The constitutional changes also set out that Slovakian law takes precedence over EU legislation when it comes to matters concerning \u201cnational identity\u201d, said Lucia Berdisov\u00e1, <\/strong>a human rights lawyer with the Institute of State and Law at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n The change suggests a path for authorities to ignore decisions from European courts, Berdisov\u00e1 said in an email. \u201cThe provisions of the amendment are so vague that it is difficult to anticipate their consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n What was clear, however, was that the changes follow Hungary in \u201cconstitutionalising\u201d national identity by using the law to promote the idea that a family could only be a married, heterosexual couple with children, while also echoing Russia\u2019s effort to curb the reach of the European convention on human rights.<\/p>\n Taken together, the amendment would allow officials to significantly increase their authority and tighten their grip on power, said Berdisov\u00e1. \u201cThe state has been markedly strengthened at the expense of its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recent changes to Slovakia\u2019s constitution mark a \u201cdark day\u201d for the country, LGBTQ+ campaigners have warned, describing measures such as the recognition of only two sexes as part of a wider rollback of human rights and rule of law in the central European country. On Friday, Slovakia\u2019s parliament passed an amendment that included measures targeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2430,131,699,1407,1321,702,15162,11714],"class_list":{"0":"post-25052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-dark","9":"tag-day","10":"tag-lgbtq","11":"tag-marks","12":"tag-parliament","13":"tag-rights","14":"tag-rolled","15":"tag-slovakia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}