Position paper from experts on the amendment of the law for protection against conversion therapies 2024
A group of experts from numerous specialist organizations (including the BMH) has been working since the end of 2022 on a position paper aimed at the revision of the law for protection against conversion therapies (KonvBehSchG) announced by the federal government for the legislative period 2021-2025. It contains 15 demands outlining what, from the experts’ perspective, needs to be implemented in the areas of legal protection, support for affected individuals, and education, research, and awareness-raising during the legislative amendment process.
On the website of the research project “Conversion Therapies: Contexts” by Mosaik Deutschland e.V., you can view the 15 demands of the expert group as well as the list of supporting institutions. The BMH is one of the initial signatory institutions of the paper.
The demands were submitted to the federal government and the parliamentary groups of the governing coalition at the end of March 2024 and subsequently published.
The press release from the BMH dated March 25, 2024, regarding the position paper can be found in the press section.
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Academic overview 2019
Project “Academic overview of the factual and legal aspects of options for taking action, including international experience, regarding the planned ‘Prohibition of so-called ‘conversion therapies’ in Germany to protect homosexual men, women, adolescents and young adults from being treated as pathological and from discrimination”
At the suggestion of our Foundation, the then Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn convened an expert commission, consisting currently of 46 members, as part the above-mentioned project.
Press release of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) on the occasion of the convention of an expert commission of 10 April 2019.
The commission sat all day on 8 May and 5 June 2019 in Berlin:
As part of the academic overview, the Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld commissioned two expert opinions. These were presented to the Federal Ministry of Health on 11 June 2019:
• Prof Dr med Peer Broken, Director of the Institute for Sexual Research and Forensic Psychiatry, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE): Brief expert opinion on the question of the evidence basis and potential harm from or through so-called “conversion therapies” against homosexuality.
• Prof Dr Martin Burgin, Chair of Public Law, Business Administration Law, Environmental and Social Law, Ludwig-Maximillian’s-Universität Munched (LMU): short expert opinion on the constitutional admissibility of a ban on so-called “conversion therapies” against homosexuality
The Federal Ministry of Health published a press release on this on 11 June 2019
The final report of our academic assessment was submitted to the Federal Ministry of Health on August 30, 2019. In addition to the aforementioned expert opinions, it contains numerous scientific contributions from members of the expert commission as well as the summarized recommendations of the Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld for a legal ban on conversion therapies.
You can download the final report here.
Contact for questions about the project
