FDP on equality and diversity

The FDP rejects any obligation to fill management and supervisory boards of companies with state ownership half with women and half with men. Balanced representation is a goal, it says, but must not rank above the merit principle.

The FDP does not want a fixed rule for equal numbers of women and men on boards. This is about companies partly owned by the state. The FDP thinks equal numbers are good. But the best-suited person should get the job.

The platform calls it a matter of course that women and men are treated equally when leadership posts are filled. Professional qualification applies regardless of gender. Equal representation is a goal in principle, but it must not result in the most suitable person being passed over.

The FDP wants to promote equality but rejects quota rules and opposes discrimination against any gender. It backs equal pay for work of equal value, pay transparency and diversity management in public institutions. People are not to be reduced to membership in a group.

The FDP wants everyone to have equal opportunities. It rejects fixed quotas. Women and men should earn the same for work of equal value. Men and non-binary people should also be able to become equal opportunity officers. Public offices should promote diversity.

The post of equal opportunity officer is to be open to men and people registered as "divers" (non-binary) as well. For equal pay, the FDP supports initiatives for pay transparency in companies. Start-up support is to consider specific needs in order to help more women found businesses. Diversity management is to apply in public administration, public companies and institutions; small and mid-sized firms are to get help with it. Other plans include democracy education in schools, more diversity on the NDR broadcasting council and the media council, and implementing the "divers" gender entry throughout the state administration.

The FDP regards LGBTIQ rights as human rights and wants to further develop and adequately fund the state action plan for acceptance. It supports the federal plans, including a self-determination law to replace the Transsexuals Act and an amendment to the Basic Law. So-called conversion therapies are to be banned completely.

LGBTIQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer people. The FDP wants to strengthen their rights. Nobody should be treated worse because of who they love or their gender. A new self-determination law should come. Counseling centers should have secure funding.

Article 3(3) of the Basic Law is to be expanded to include sexual identity; discrimination in adoption law is also to be prohibited. For blood donation, individual risk behavior is to count, not sexual identity. Funding for LGBTIQ counseling centers and AIDS support organizations is to be secured and their regional spread improved. The FDP wants elder care that is sensitive to LGBTIQ needs, including in training. Schools are to be encouraged to use awareness projects.

The FDP wants to strengthen women's shelters, including their child protection rooms, and women's counseling centers in the state, and to expand protection from violence. Women should find it easier to return to an independent life after staying in a shelter.

The FDP wants to strengthen women's shelters. Women find protection from violence there. Counseling centers for women should also get more support. Afterward, women should find it easier to live on their own again.

Support inside and outside the shelters is to be better coordinated. The FDP wants to look into an online directory of available shelter places that spans several states. It backs policy in line with the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty against violence toward women. Violence prevention measures, especially in schools, are to be reviewed continuously and supplemented with new models where needed.

The FDP wants to keep supporting Jewish life and to call out antisemitism whatever its source. It is open to recognizing Islam, provided there is a broadly legitimized organization that unquestionably stands by the Basic Law. It also wants to promote imam training in Germany.

The FDP wants to keep supporting Jewish life. It wants to speak out clearly against hatred of Jews. It is open to recognizing Islam. For that, there must be an organization that stands by the constitution. Imams should be trained in Germany. Imams lead prayers in a mosque.

The FDP wants to address antisemitic tendencies whether they come from the right, the left, or from religious, above all Islamic, motives. For treaties between the state and an Islamic organization, it requires a clear commitment to the free democratic basic order; the organization must also respect the state constitution. German imam training is meant to keep anti-constitutional influence to a minimum.

The FDP wants to keep supporting and adequately funding the institutions of the Danish minority, the Frisians, and the German Sinti and Roma. It promotes the idea of a House of Minorities and wants to write the commitment to the German minority in Denmark into the state constitution.

Danes, Frisians, and Sinti and Roma live in Schleswig-Holstein as minorities. The FDP wants to keep funding their institutions. It would like a House of Minorities. The German minority in Denmark should also get help.

The FDP stands by the existing institutional funding for the state association of German Sinti and Roma and wants to keep backing its education advisers. The agreement between the state and the Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger on funding the German community in Denmark is to be extended from 2024. Federal money for the Deutscher Schul- und Sprachverein (German school and language association) is to match actual need. Damage to kindergartens and school buildings, which the program attributes to long federal underfunding, is to be repaired.