During my second International Policy fellowship, I have achieved my objectives.

I continued studying EU law, especially the implications of the implementation of the Employment Directive (2000/78/EC) and the family law of member states. I participated in the training of ILGA-Europe (the European region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association) in Brussels in July 2002 on the directive. I have also written an article about it, comparing the Directive and Hungarian law, which was published in the 2002/3 issue of the Fundamentum (a legal journal published by INDOK, Human Rights Information and Documentation Center): http://www.indok.hu/hun_uj3.html, Sándor Bea: "Diszkrimináció a munkahelyen".

I also participated in the launch of this issue: a discussion moderated by Gábor Halmai, director of the INDOK, in the Trafó Contemporary Arts House in November 2002.

I participated in a discussion organized by MONA, together with several representatives of women’s rights NGOs and the OSI, and talked about a possible work plan for lobbying politicians about the equal opportunities law in preparation. I have sent MONA the comparative analysis of the EU Employment Directive and Hungarian law.

I drafted a booklet on NGO management, and have written a research paper on the EU Employment Directive and Hungarian developments, and the shortcomings of the Hungarian family law regarding the equal opportunities of same-sex couples. (Both are on my website, with relevant policy papers.)

My study trip to New York in the spring was highly effective. I met and consulted a number of international NGOs: the Human Rights Watch, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Outfront program of Amnesty International, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, as well as the ASTRAEA Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Network Women’s Program of the OSI in New York. I also studied a lot – both in the libraries and the Center for the Study of Human Rights of the Columbia University (where I also attended a few lectures and classes of this year’s human rights advocates) and the Foundation Center.

I have met a number of NGO activists in Hungary, outside Budapest (in Gy?r, Miskolc, Sopron, Szeged and Debrecen) to consult on what they identify as needs and necessary topics concerning lobbying, EU law and procedures, and – mainly – NGO management.

I also had discussions with Eastern European activists. In the spring I traveled to Prague through Banska Bistrica and Bratislava. I consulted Marianna Siposova of Altera in Banska Bistrica, Anna Daucikova of the Q Archive / Documentation and Information Centre in Bratislava, and Milus Kotisova and other activists of the organizers of the Aprilfest (a yearly lesbian cultural and political festival) in Prague. I also met a number of Eastern European fellow activists in Brussels, at the above mentioned ILGA-Europe training session.

I met a number of queer activists and professors at a Queer Conference at the University of Warsaw (Department of American Studies) in December 2002, where I talked about Hungarian lesbian organizing and anti-homophobia campaigns.

I continued to work with the Háttér Society for Gays and Lesbians in Hungary, especially their Legal Aid Service. I edited the organizations new website, a new brochure for the organization and a separate one with legal information. Together with József Kárpáti, Director of the Legal Aid Service, we published an article on the website of the EU Accession Monitoring Program of the OSI (http://www.eumap.org/articles/content/60/603).