ILGA Europe’s latest review reveals a worrying rollback on rights across Europe and Central Asia
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY SOFRONI MARIA
A significant report released today by ILGA Europe highlights a concerning trend: governments across Europe and Central Asia are increasingly enacting anti-LGBTQIA legislation as a means to undermine fundamental democratic freedoms.
The Annual Review Of The Human Rights Situation Of LGBTQIA People In Europe And Central Asia For 2025 details how such laws are being utilised to erode freedoms of expression, association, and the integrity of electoral processes.
The report identifies a pattern where governments adopt “foreign agent” laws, compelling non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to register as foreign-funded entities. This tactic serves to delegitimise NGOs, restrict their funding, and suppress human rights activism, particularly targeting LGBTQIA organisations. In the past year, countries including Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, and Montenegro have proposed such laws, posing direct threats to civil society.
Concurrently, “LGBT propaganda” laws have been introduced or discussed in seven countries – Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, and Slovakia. These laws criminalise the visibility of LGBTQIA individuals, ban related content, silence activists, and restrict freedom of assembly. The education sector has been notably affected, with attempts to exclude LGBTQIA topics from curricula in Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Russia, and Slovakia.
The normalisation of LGBTQIA-phobic hate speech, often from political and religious leaders, has led to a surge in violence against LGBTQIA individuals. This hostile environment has also justified new barriers to healthcare for trans people in countries such as Andorra, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and the UK. Following the UK’s Cass Review, efforts to restrict trans healthcare for minors have emerged in Austria, France, Italy, Ireland, Poland, and the UK, further endangering trans lives.
As persecution intensifies in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey, many LGBTQIA individuals are seeking asylum elsewhere. However, countries like Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland and the UK are denying asylum claims based on outdated assessments, with some officials rejecting applicants for not appearing “LGBTQIA enough”.
Chaber, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, stated: “This report confirms what many of us have feared – we are entering a new era where LGBTI people have become the testing ground for laws that erode democracy itself. Across Europe and Central Asia, governments are using anti-LGBTI rhetoric to justify restrictions on free speech, civil society, and fair elections. What begins as an attack on LGBTI rights rapidly grows into a wider assault on the rights and freedoms of all individuals in society. This is not just an LGBTI issue; it is a crisis for human rights and democracy as a whole.”
Advocacy Director Katrin Hugendubel added: “At this critical time, our leaders cannot simply leave the protection of human rights to the courts. Politicians at both the European and national levels must act decisively to counter the growing attacks on the cornerstones of democracy we are seeing. The normalisation of anti-LGBTI rhetoric is not just a threat to one community—it is now a proven direct assault on the democratic principles that underpin our societies.”
You can read the full report here: ilga-europe.org/report/annual-review-2025/
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