Council of Europe congratulates Cyprus for banning conversion ‘therapies’

President of the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe (CoE), Aoife Nolan, has congratulated Cyprus’ House of Representatives on its vote for the complete ban on all forms of conversion therapy.

According to a press release from parliament, MP Nikos Tornaritis, head of the Cypriot delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) addressed a question to Nolan after a speech she gave at the session of the standing committee of the assembly in Riga.

Tornaritis, firstly referred to the House of Representatives vote to completely ban any type of conversion therapy, as an important step in the promotion and protection of the human rights of the LGBTI community.

He then asked Aoife Nolan, as chair of the Committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of the CoE’s Human Rights Charter, about the progress made by the PACE member states on the issue.

Nolan congratulated the House of Representatives for this important amendment to the legislation.

Furthermore, she underlined the importance of criminalizing, at the international level, those practices that violate the human right to physical and sexual self-determination, the press release concludes.