Maria Kanel's Contact Details

Maria Kanel's Company Details

International Family Equality Day

Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland • 2 Employees
Public Relations & Communications

Rainbow families are growing, gaining visibility and increasingly enjoying social and legal recognition, but their levels of recognition still differ widely around the globe. In some countries rainbow families enjoy equal rights and social recognition, while in others, for instance some Eastern European, Latin American and most African and Asian countries, same-sex parents and their children have to live in hiding in order to avoid blatant discrimination, including the threat of violence. The International Family Equality Day is an official LGBT awareness day and take place every year on the first Sunday in May to celebrate the Diversity of Families globally. The strategic importance of IFED derives from the fact that it provides LGBTIQ* families and associations with the opportunity to come together, reflect and prepare for civic action; to strengthen the visibility of LGBTIQ* families and the values they are supporting; to establish new alliances with institutions and various sectors of civil society, to learn from each other and to build partnerships across borders; the increasing numbers of countries and cities stand for itself. Therefore IFED is not to be seen as an end in itself, but as a mean to empower and inject new impetus in a global movement for diversity, visibility and respect for all families. The IFED celebration Annual Report can be used as a practical toolkit to address lobbying strategies. Celebrating IFED is also listed among the good practices in the Resolution 380 (2015) Guaranteeing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People's Rights: a Responsibility for Europe's Town and Regions of the Congress of Regional and Local Authorities of the Council of Europe. All rainbow families and their friends and advocates, as well as institutions, NGOs, family organisations and politicians from across the globe are invited to participate.