Strengthening Human Rights – Now is the Time to Include Queer Perspectives!

🆕 Statement by the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation on the CDU/CSU and SPD Coalition Agreement

Berlin, 22 April 2025 – The new coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD has been finalized. The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation welcomes the agreement’s clear commitment to human rights, international solidarity, and the strengthening of civil society actors. This sends an important signal – especially at a time when democratic values are under pressure globally and queer people are repeatedly targeted by repression and violence.

Human rights play a central role in the coalition agreement and are highlighted as a foundation of the rules-based international order. The universality, indivisibility, and inalienability of human rights are emphasized, and the coalition promises to resolutely oppose any attempts to restrict these rights.

Specifically, the coalition commits to the following measures:

  • Abolition of the death penalty and a ban on torture

  • Protection of human rights defenders and civil society worldwide

  • Targeted EU sanctions in response to human rights violations

  • Ratification of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, trans*, intersex, and non-binary people at the EU level

The coalition views human rights as a benchmark for democracy and the rule of law and aims to defend and promote them worldwide. We welcome the decision to maintain the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as an independent ministry.

Development aid and conditionality play a strategic role in the coalition agreement and are defined as tools for promoting democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, as well as for pursuing foreign, security, and economic policy interests.

1. Increasing efficiency:

  • Reducing development policy interfaces between ministries

  • Consolidating services within the BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) to increase coherence and effectiveness

2. International cooperation:

  • Closer coordination with other donor countries and institutions, particularly within the European Union and the United Nations

A particularly strong signal is the agreement that: “The federal government will continue to strengthen civil society actors in countries of the Global South and advocate for the protection and expansion of their spaces for action.” This continues the important path of funding this crucial work – especially when state repression or persecution threatens and cooperation with governments becomes more difficult.

Also valuable is the commitment to act “even more consistently against rule-of-law violations” in the EU. This creates a basis for the federal government to continue appearing as a party to proceedings before European courts against other member states. In the past, this has helped support important decisions.

What matters now: implementation with a queer focus.

The agreement emphasizes that Germany’s foreign and development policy is guided by the universal validity of human rights and the UN Charter. It also highlights the strengthening of civil society organizations in the Global South. Particularly relevant is the federal government’s explicit commitment to implementing and further developing UN Security Council Resolution 1325 "Women, Peace and Security" as well as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This promises a continued human rights-based foreign policy – a crucial framework that can and should be used to systematically integrate queer perspectives.

For us, it’s clear: these human rights foundations must now be brought to life – and the perspectives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, intersex, and other queer people (LGBTIQ*) must be consistently included.

Ahead of the federal election, the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation presented ten specific demands to democratic parties to structurally anchor the rights of LGBTIQ* people in foreign and development policy. These include:

  • Continued implementation of the federal government’s LGBTI inclusion strategy

  • Appointment of a special LGBTIQ* envoy at the Foreign Office

  • A dedicated fund for small queer organizations in the Global South

  • Strong engagement in multilateral alliances such as the Equal Rights Coalition

These points have not yet been explicitly included in the coalition agreement. However, based on the outlined human rights principles, we see strong potential to now negotiate and embed these demands in actual implementation.

Now is the time to include queer rights in international policy.
Germany can only live up to its historical and global responsibility if queer human rights are not only considered but structurally secured. The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation stands ready as a technical partner to support the federal government in shaping this path together.

Read more on domestic policy in the coalition agreement:  Do CDU/CSU and SPD also want to take responsibility for LGBTIQ* people?(in German)

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