BRUSSELS, October 8, 2007  –  A British Member of the European Parliament has pledged today to take the matter of equality of the age of consent in Gibraltar directly to the heart of Number 10 Downing Street.

“I will be raising the issue personally with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is a passionate supporter of equality,” Michael Cashman (PSE/UK Labour), the president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights, said today.

“We have given the Gibraltarian government long enough - now is the time to change the laws.”

ILGA-Europe is also concerned that the Gibraltar authorities are reluctant to bring this overseas territory of Great Britain into line with the European human rights standards.

“The age of consent for homosexual acts is still 18 where the age of consent for heterosexual acts is 16,” a spokesperson for ILGA-Europe said this afternoon.

“This difference in age of consent is discriminatory and contradicts Article 8 (Respect to a private and family life) of the European Convention of Human Rights as repeatedly confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights.

“ILGA-Europe urges the Gibraltar – and the UK authorities – to immediately remedy this situation and equalise the age of consent for all consensual acts between adults in Gibraltar.”

Last night (October 7), Felix Alvarez, chairman of Equality Rights GGR, hit out at both the Gibraltar and UK governments for stalling of the issue of equality.

Mr. Alvarez revealed that Equality Rights GGR has made a formal submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry on the Overseas Territories of the British Parliament.

In Gibraltar, the age of consent for heterosexuals is 16, and 18 for homosexuals.

SEE ALSO

Gay Rights Group Welcomes Intervention of British Prime Minister.  The Gibraltar Equality Rights group, GGR, this afternoon welcomed the intervention of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the inequality of the UK’s self-governing overseas territory’s age of consent laws.  (UK Gay News, October 16, 2007)

PM Brown To Take Up Gay Age of Consent Inequality in Gibraltar.  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to take-up the matter of the unequal age of consent still in place in Gibraltar, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom.  ((UK Gay News, October 16, 2007)

Chief Minister Is ‘Passing the Buck’ to Gordon Brown on Gay Age of Consent.  Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Peter Caruana’s failure to act on the legal age of consent is degrading the constitution and turning the Rock’s highest law into a series of voluntary codes as far as human rights are concerned, Equality Rights GGR claimed last night.  (UK Gay News, October 8, 2007)

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Posted: 08 October 2007 at 16:30 (UK time)