Grüne on equality and diversity

The Greens want to advance equal pay for women and men and, to that end, publish an equal pay report for the administration and state-owned enterprises. Work and care duties are to become easier to combine through needs-based childcare, and discrimination in the workplace is to be reduced.

Women often earn less than men. The Greens want to change that. A report should show how the state of Berlin pays. In companies owned by the state, women should hold half of the top jobs. Parents should get better care for their children.

State-owned companies are to remain obligated to take equality and diversity measures until women hold half of leadership positions. In technical occupations, career guidance in schools and support programs are meant to attract more women. Company daycare centers are to be supported and supplementary care outside opening hours expanded, especially for single parents and parents working shifts. Advice for family caregivers is to grow. Diversity measures are to be anchored in the private sector, supported by the Fachstelle Arbeitsmarkt und Antidiskriminierung (office for labor market and anti-discrimination). According to the platform, commercial AI systems must not produce discriminatory results.

The Greens want half of professorships and leadership posts to be held by women and want diversity officers permanently established at all universities and research institutions. Measures against abuse of power are also to be strengthened. According to the platform, universities serve as a model for society.

The Greens want more women as professors and in leading jobs. Half of these jobs should go to women. Every university should have diversity officers. They advise people who face unfair treatment. The Greens also want to do more against abuse of power.

Diversity officers are to promote diversity and advise people who experience discrimination. Teaching and research staff are to receive training on diversity issues. To counter abuse of power, the party wants to reduce dependencies during the qualification phase and expand independent support services; anchoring this in the higher education act is to be examined. The Berlin Chancengleichheitsprogramm (equal opportunity program) is to be developed further and get more funding. The aim is a feminist cultural change below the level of professorships as well.

The Greens want to secure gender equality through a strategy covering all Senate departments, a parity law for the state parliament and expanded gender budgeting. According to the platform, the aim is for women and other groups covered by the term FLINTA* to live freely and with economic independence.

The Greens want more gender equality in Berlin. There should be a fixed plan for all parts of the government. Parliament should have as many women as men. The Greens want a law for that. The state should check who benefits from its spending. This is called gender budgeting.

Gender budgeting in the state budget is to be developed further, with oversight by a strengthened coordinating office in the Senate finance department and extension to more budget items and diversity criteria. The equality officers in the districts are to be strengthened. The platform also calls for binding support programs, target agreements with state-owned companies and holdings, transparent selection procedures, quotas and equal pay. Women in STEM jobs, academia and skilled trades as well as women founders are to be supported, as is returning to work after family leave. Flexible work models and more childcare and care infrastructure are meant to distribute paid work and care work more fairly.

The Greens want to implement the Gewalthilfegesetz (federal act on support for victims of violence) and spend the federal money on additional services. They plan two more women's shelters, more counseling and more safe apartments, because the platform considers the existing places insufficient.

The Greens want more protection for women who face violence. There should be two new women's shelters. More counseling and more safe apartments are also planned. Federal money should pay for extra help. Everyone affected should get help, no matter their residence status.

In addition to the two shelters, the platform calls for more second-stage apartments, meaning transitional housing for women and their children after a shelter stay. It also plans facilities that accept substance use and safe apartments with explicit access for marginalized groups. Interpreting services and "Housing First" for women are to be expanded, and emergency shelters for FLINTA* enlarged. Protection, counseling and housing should not depend on residence status and should be accessible, multilingual, free of discrimination and trauma-sensitive.

The Greens want to fully implement the Istanbul Convention on protecting women and girls from violence, with more prevention and more work with offenders. At the federal level they want to make verbal sexual harassment ("catcalling") a crime, and they want to make it easier to get a residence permit that does not depend on a spouse.

The Greens want to carry out the Istanbul Convention. This is a treaty among many countries to protect women from violence. There should be more prevention in schools and public offices. Offenders should, for example, take anger training. Sexual harassment with words should become a crime. Courts should get special divisions for sex crimes.

According to the platform, the convention requires measures that go beyond the current situation. Criminal courts are to get a special jurisdiction for sex offenses. Better data collection is meant to allow a debate based on reliable figures. The principle "whoever hits has to leave" is to be applied more strictly by the courts, youth welfare offices and police, and the state-owned housing companies are to write it into their leases. The hurdles for a residence permit that is not tied to marriage are to be lowered.

The Greens want to expand support for people affected by digital violence and strengthen the structures for reporting and documenting such cases. The platform sees this as a central form of gender-based violence that mostly affects women, girls and queer people.

Some people are threatened or insulted online. This is called digital violence. The Greens want more counseling for those affected. People should be able to report such cases better across Berlin. Police, courts and schools should get training on this.

The platform counts hate speech, threats, cyberstalking, image-based sexualized violence and sharing private content without consent as digital violence. It plans specialized online counseling and awareness campaigns. Police and the judiciary are to receive mandatory training, and further training is also planned for the administration, schools and youth services. Developments in artificial intelligence are to be taken into account.

The Greens want to push at the federal level for repealing Section 218 of the Criminal Code, which makes abortion a criminal offense. They justify this with the right of pregnant people to decide about their own bodies.

Section 218 is part of the Criminal Code. It says that abortion is generally a crime. The Greens want to remove this section. They say pregnant people should decide about their own bodies. Berlin should bring a bill on this to the Bundesrat.

The platform calls the decision about one's own body and reproductive health an inalienable part of self-determination and equal rights. Berlin is to introduce a bill on new abortion rules in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the German states. This is the bill that, according to the Greens, was blocked by the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag.

The Greens want to protect and decriminalize sex workers and reduce the stigma they face. To do so, they plan to implement the results of the "Runder Tisch Sexarbeit" (round table on sex work) and develop protection plans with the districts, especially for the Kurfürstenkiez neighborhood.

The Greens want to protect people in sex work better. They should get safe and clean places to work. There should be more counseling and better medical help. Things should change especially in the Kurfürstenkiez area. People who violate sex workers' rights should be punished.

The round table was convened under the coalition of SPD, Left and Greens; its results are now to be put into practice. The peer project "transSexWorks" is to join the coordinating body, and specialized counseling centers are to add psychological counseling. The plans with the districts aim at safe and hygienic workplaces, better health care and qualified legal advice. According to the platform, this should also ease pressure on public space. Clients who violate sex workers' personal rights, for example in online client forums, are to be prosecuted.

The Greens want to draw up an anti-discrimination and diversity strategy for all of Berlin that brings existing programs together. Responsibilities at the state and borough level are to be set out in law. Counseling services for disadvantaged groups are to receive permanent funding and be expanded.

The Greens want one plan against discrimination for all of Berlin. Discrimination means treating people unfairly. The plan should bring all current programs together. Advice centers should get lasting funding.

The strategy is to be developed together with researchers, experts, civil society and affected communities, and it would review all institutions for structural disadvantage. The state framework "Demokratie. Vielfalt. Respekt." would be thoroughly revised. The Berlin-Monitor survey would be published every year again. New fields of work include health and care, universities, and discrimination in digital settings. The program also plans more multilingual and psychosocial support, funding for self-organized groups, diversity teams in the boroughs, and an action plan to protect safer spaces.

The Greens want to revise Berlin's Landesantidiskriminierungsgesetz (LADG, the state anti-discrimination law) and widen its protection. New protected characteristics would be added, the law would also apply to state-owned companies, and the ombuds office would become an independent authority.

Berlin has a law against discrimination by public offices. The Greens want to widen this law. It should protect more people. People should have more time to file a claim. The complaints office should become independent.

The program names weight, nationality, residence status and marital status as new characteristics. Claims would expire after three years instead of one, and compensation amounts would rise. A legal aid fund would make lawsuits by associations easier. The ombuds office would get a right of initiative, its own right to address the press and a reporting duty, and it would host an independent complaints office for discrimination in schools. At the federal level, the Greens push for a reform of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

The Greens want to relaunch the Diversity-Landesprogramm (state diversity program) and make it mandatory for all Berlin administrations. Core measures would be written into law. In addition, a diversity check would review all Senate projects in advance for discriminatory effects.

Berlin has a program for more diversity in public offices. The Greens want to restart it. All offices would have to follow it. New laws would be checked first. The check asks: Does this law put anyone at a disadvantage?

In the program's view, many goals of the state program launched in 2020 were missed because measures stayed non-binding and there was no overall coordination. Measures to be anchored in law include positive action against unequal treatment, independent reviews of internal processes, fixed complaint procedures and a strategy in every administration. A new focus would be low-discrimination access to public services. Decisions are to rest on data collected together with communities.

The Greens want to fully implement the Partizipations- und Migrationsgesetz (PartMigG, Berlin's participation and migration law) and raise the share of BIPoC and people who experience racism or antisemitism in the administration to the population average by 2030. In the long run, a diversity quota is planned. State-owned companies would also get binding diversity strategies.

Few people with a migration background work in Berlin's public offices. The Greens want to change that. By 2030, their share should match the city's population. Later there should be a diversity quota. A quota is a fixed minimum share.

For the PartMigG, the program calls for clear responsibilities in all Senate departments, sufficient resources and fixed participation by advisory councils and migrant organizations. The share is to rise through binding positive action. In addition, equality data on all people who experience racism, diversity monitoring and anonymous surveys on discrimination would be introduced. The staff representation law would be supplemented by a body representing BIPoC employees. For state-owned companies, the strategies would cover both dealings with customers and personnel management.

The Greens want to set up a new format in Berlin's state parliament that works on anti-discrimination policy together with civil society. It would also monitor how politics and the administration carry out the measures. In the party's view, the previous commission of inquiry did not deliver effective results.

The Greens want a new body in Berlin's parliament. There, lawmakers would work with civic groups. The topic is policy against discrimination. The body would also check whether public offices carry out the decisions.

The program accuses the commission of inquiry of having intensified a culture war instead of developing the strategies against antisemitism, racism, hostility toward queer people and other discrimination. The new format is meant to put an intersectional anti-discrimination policy at its center. It would systematically track implementation. The focus is on public-sector institutions and structures.

The Greens want to fully implement Berlin's state plan for preventing antisemitism and close gaps in protection. Jewish sites would get better structural and personnel security, and prevention organizations would receive lasting rather than short-term funding. The party wants Jewish life in Berlin to be possible in safety and freedom.

The Greens want to protect Jewish people in Berlin better. Jewish places should get more security. Groups that work against hatred of Jews should get lasting funding. Police should pursue crimes driven by this hatred. Researchers should study hatred of Jews online.

The program sees a need for reliable structures above all in schools, universities and victim protection. Politically motivated crimes are to be prosecuted consistently. The party names far-right ideologies as a danger as well as Israel-related antisemitism, which it locates in parts of the left and in Islamist circles, and it distinguishes this from factual criticism of the Israeli government. A research cluster on digital antisemitism would be set up at the Center for Research on Antisemitism to develop early-warning systems and advise policymakers, media and platforms.

The Greens want to appoint a state commissioner against anti-Muslim racism. The office would close gaps in protection in public authorities, schools and working life and carry out the recommendations of the responsible expert commission. Counseling and monitoring services would grow.

The Greens want a new office against hatred of Muslims. This person should protect Muslims better in public offices and schools. Public employees would have to take training. July 1 should become a day of remembrance.

According to the program, anti-Muslim racism has grown markedly since October 7, 2023. School rules would get uniform requirements that comply with the state anti-discrimination law. Training for public employees would become mandatory, and the state criminal police office would get a dedicated contact person. The party wants to make July 1 a day of remembrance and action and is considering agreements with Muslim associations. Discrimination against Alevis, Druze, Yazidis and other religious minorities is also to be countered.

The Greens want stronger action against anti-Asian racism and against anti-Slavic discrimination. To that end, counseling and reporting offices would be set up, public employees trained and self-organized groups funded.

The Greens want to protect people of Asian origin better. The same goes for people with roots in Eastern Europe. There should be advice centers and places to report incidents. Staff in public offices would get training.

For people affected by anti-Asian racism, counseling, reporting and empowerment services would be created for the first time or strengthened. Asian-German self-organized groups would receive funding and seats on political bodies to raise their representation in media, culture and politics. According to the program, anti-Slavic discrimination often appears together with classism, meaning contempt based on social background. Here the party wants to strengthen research and civic education, improve participation by people with an Eastern European migration background and train staff in public authorities.

The Greens want Berlin to commit to the second UN Decade for People of African Descent and to draw up an overall strategy with an action plan through 2034. The structures from the first decade would be kept and secured for the long term.

The United Nations declared ten years for people of African descent. The Greens want Berlin to take part. Berlin should write a plan through 2034. Advice centers for Black people should stay for good.

Berlin committed in 2018 to the first UN Decade, which ran from 2015 to 2024; its unmet demands are to be carried out further. These include a degree program in "Intersectional Black European Studies" at Berlin universities. The new strategy is to be developed with Black, African and Afro-diasporic communities and would be binding for all Senate departments and the boroughs. Counseling, reporting and empowerment services would be expanded and funded long term, including the Black community center.

The Greens want to push back racism against Sinti and Roma in public administration, education, health care and the labor market. The responsible advisory council would be involved on a binding basis, and public bodies would receive training. The party opposes deporting Roma refugees to countries of origin classified as safe.

Sinti and Roma often face discrimination in Berlin. The Greens want to change that. Public offices should get training. Schools should teach about Sinti and Roma. Roma refugees should not be deported if they face violence at home.

According to the program, most reported incidents occur in contact with authorities, in education and health care, and at work. The recommendations of the documentation center on antigypsyism are to be carried out. Knowledge about the history and present of Sinti and Roma would become a mandatory part of teacher training and school curricula. All children should be able to attend school regardless of residence status. The party justifies its opposition to deportations by saying Roma face attacks and disadvantage in the countries concerned.

The Greens want to permanently secure queer counseling centers, projects, cultural venues and safer spaces and expand them across all districts. The platform sees this infrastructure as threatened by attacks, displacement and the Senate's policies. Every district is to get at least one queer venue and a commissioner for queer issues.

The Greens want to protect queer people in Berlin better. Queer means, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. Every district should have a meeting place for queer people. Every district should have a contact person for queer issues. Counseling should be available all over the city.

An action plan is to prevent civil society facilities and safer spaces from being pushed out; state-owned and district-owned properties are to be considered for this. District commissioners for queer issues are to get a legal basis, and the Initiative geschlechtliche und sexuelle Vielfalt (IGSV, Berlin's initiative for gender and sexual diversity) is to be implemented citywide. The plan includes queer health and care services, queer content in university and vocational training, and training for staff at courts and youth welfare offices. Rainbow families are to get more counseling and another family center. At the federal level, the Greens push for a reform of parentage law and want to make lesbian life more visible.

The Greens want to give Berlin's queer communities more support, with counseling centers, an action plan for bi+ people, and a fund for accessibility. The state's initiative on gender and sexual diversity is to become a binding overall strategy.

The Greens want to support queer people in Berlin more. Queer means, for example, lesbian, gay, bi, or trans. There should be more counseling centers across the city. A plan should help bisexual people. The city should set fixed goals for all Senate departments.

The program plans a "Bi+" action plan and aims to reduce discrimination against trans, intersex, non-binary, and agender people. Contact points for queer groups facing multiple forms of disadvantage, such as refugees, are to be funded citywide. The inclusion fund for an accessible community is to be secured permanently and expanded. A plan against discrimination in community venues and nightlife is foreseen, along with education and prevention work against antisemitism in queer spaces. The Initiative for Gender and Sexual Diversity (IGSV) is to be relaunched with verifiable goals for all Senate departments, closer involvement of the districts, community participation, and a steering body.

The Greens want Berlin to push at the federal and EU level for legal reforms against discrimination. These include protecting gender and sexual identity in the Basic Law (Germany's constitution) and legally recognizing partnerships other than marriage.

The Greens want to change the Basic Law. That is Germany's constitution. It should say: No one may be treated worse because of their sexual identity. Partnerships without marriage should also be legally recognized. People in them take responsibility for each other. Berlin should push for this in Germany and in the EU.

As examples, the program names the Verantwortungsgemeinschaft (a legally recognized community of mutual responsibility) and the French "Pacte civil de solidarité" (PACS), a regulated partnership alongside marriage. Article 3 of the Basic Law is to be expanded to cover gender identity and sexual identity. Berlin is also to become more active in the international Rainbow Cities Network and show international solidarity.

The Greens want to respond to what they describe as a sharp rise in anti-queer hostility with education, prevention, and better protection. Schools are to receive queer education programs every year, and a study is to capture unreported violence.

The Greens want to protect queer people better from hate and violence. All school students should learn about queer life every year. Police should protect queer places more when there is danger. A study should show how much violence there really is. Many attacks are never reported.

Specialist offices for queer and intersectional education are to be secured permanently and expanded, along with projects that inform and reduce prejudice. Queer institutions are to be better protected, with more police on site during acute threats. Police and the judiciary are to be trained in sensitive handling of such cases. As part of the "Berlin Monitor Queerfeindliche Gewalt," a study of unreported crime is planned, since the program says only a fraction of attacks are reported. Confidence-building steps are meant to increase reporting, and the party wants to take a particularly firm stand against anti-trans agitation.

The Greens want women, people with low incomes, people with disabilities and BIPoC to be better represented in the cultural sector, especially in leadership. A central complaints office is to be created to counter abuse of power.

Some groups have few chances in the cultural sector. This is true for women and people with disabilities, for example. The Greens want to change that. There should also be an office for complaints.

The platform names gender parity and diverse juries as professional standards. Projects such as FAIRSTAGE, ProQuote and the "Spielplan Audiodeskription" (audio description schedule) are to be funded. The work of "Diversity Arts Culture" and the accessible renovation of public cultural institutions are to be expanded. A central complaints office based on the Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (General Equal Treatment Act) is to be set up following an existing concept. Public cultural institutions are to get support to act on their own against discrimination and #MeToo cases.

The Greens want to abolish Berlin's Neutralitätsgesetz (Neutrality Act) so that religious symbols such as the hijab, kippah or turban can also be worn in public service. In addition, all faith communities are to be able to practice their religion on equal terms, for example regarding holidays, shop opening hours and burials.

The Neutrality Act bans religious symbols for some state employees. Examples are the headscarf or the kippah. The Greens want to abolish this law. All religions should have the same rights.

The program bases the abolition on the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court. Jewish shops selling kosher food are to be allowed to open on Sundays instead of Saturdays. Jewish and Muslim holidays are to be better protected, and there are to be no cuts to phone or prison chaplaincy at the expense of individual groups. Burial rules are to be relaxed. The party wants to develop new, more diverse forms of commemoration events, and to preserve community centers as shared spaces for faith groups and anchor them in neighborhood planning.

The Greens want to create an independent complaints office for discrimination in schools. Education projects against anti-queer hostility, racism and antisemitism would be expanded and made a permanent offering in schools. The party considers these projects important for fostering respect and acceptance.

The Greens want a complaints office for schools. People who are treated unfairly can turn to it. Projects against racism, hatred of Jews and hatred of queer people should stay. There should be more of them.

The complaints office would be attached to the ombuds office of the Landesantidiskriminierungsgesetz (LADG, Berlin's state anti-discrimination law) and would be an agency of its own. Schools would develop in a discrimination-critical way, with training that involves civil society groups. The platform accuses the CDU-SPD Senate of ideological attacks on queer education and wants to anchor the affected projects firmly. The office for queer education and the competence center for intersectional pedagogy would continue to receive support.

The Greens want the workforce of Berlin's administration to reflect the city's diversity. To that end, language barriers in hiring are to be lowered and flexible work models such as remote work, job sharing and part-time leadership made possible. The practice of denying civil-servant status because of a person's weight is to end.

Very different people live in Berlin. The Greens want the public offices to reflect that. People who do not yet speak perfect German should get hired more easily. Staff should be able to work more flexibly, for example from home. Nobody should be denied civil-servant status because of their weight.

The platform regards multilingualism as an asset for the administration. New hires are to be able to improve their German during the probationary period, for example through job-related language courses or courses developed specifically for the administration. New work models are to remain voluntary and be introduced together with the staff council. Lateral entry is to become easier through targeted onboarding and further training. The party calls the practice of refusing civil-servant status because of an applicant's weight discriminatory and wants to abolish it.