The ACT Association (Against Conversion Therapy), which collected more than a million signatures for its petition proposing a ban on “conversion therapies” across the European Union, calls on Hadja Lahbib, the Commissioner for Equality, to work toward banning these torture-related practices.
Conversion therapies are recognized as torture practices by the UN. And although they have been banned in France since 2022, these practices remain legal in 19 European Union countries. Madame Hadja Lahbib, as European Commissioner for Equality, we are sending you this op-ed and ask you to act.
On May 17, 2025, for the International Day Against LGBTIphobias, we celebrated the success of the European Citizens’ Initiative calling for “the ban on conversion practices in the EU”. This campaign gathered signatures from more than 1.2 million citizens, and from over 300 NGOs calling on you to end impunity and to protect LGBTI+ people in Europe. By reaching the million-signature threshold, this European Citizens’ Initiative was validated under European law and legally compelled the European Commission to respond with either a legislative act, or a justified refusal to act. But no justification could explain why the Commission would accept that LGBTI+ people continue to be tortured in Europe because of their identity.
The institutional and citizen pressure is growing against these practices that aim to modify, suppress, or hide a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. It is even the European Parliament, through the adoption of the Annual Report on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU, “strongly urges, for the Commission to present a legal act proposal to ban conversion practices across all Member States, in response to the European Citizens’ Initiative.”
A firm position is also echoed by the European Economic and Social Committee, which likewise urges the Commission to act in favor of banning the “conversion therapies” and banning intersex mutilations following our campaign. Similarly, despite the incessant attacks from the European far-right on LGBTI+ rights, a broad majority of Members of Parliament, from all political sides, stand in support of a European law. Because defending such practices means opposing both the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, public opinion, and above all the decency that applies to everyone. Some claim that these practices belong to a bygone era, phenomena that no longer exist. But they continue to exist in Europe.
From the Valencia region in Spain to the outskirts of Warsaw in Poland, testimonies are multiplying. They help show that these are not isolated, marginal cases, but indeed an organized system, sometimes transnational, resulting in unimaginable violence that should be forbidden, not legal, as in the majority of the continent.
From the Valencia region in Spain to the outskirts of Warsaw in Poland, testimonies are multiplying. They help explain that these are not isolated, marginal cases, but really an organized system, sometimes transnational, and that results in unprecedented violence that should be prohibited, not legal, as in the majority of the continent.
Now, the countdown has begun; the European Commission has until May 18, 2026 to respond to ACT’s European Citizens’ Initiative (Against Conversion Therapy). Condemning is no longer enough; action is required to ban conversion therapies wherever they exist. Madame Lahbib, European citizens are asking you to act.
