Volt on equality and diversity

Volt wants stronger protection for people in the LGBTQIA+ community against violence and hate crime. It plans more support and prevention services, public campaigns, and dedicated contact points for those affected. The platform points to rising violence, especially against trans people.

Queer people often face violence. This is especially true for trans people. Volt wants to protect them better. There should be more help and prevention. Campaigns should inform people about the problem. Victims should get their own places to find help.

Support and prevention would be expanded together with civil society organizations. Public campaigns would draw attention to exclusionary violence and hostile behavior toward LGBTQIA+ people. People who have experienced violence would find contact points tailored to their needs. The platform frames this as part of a general right to protection from discrimination, violence, and hate crime.

Volt wants comparable work to be paid equally regardless of personal characteristics such as gender, origin or disability. It also wants to strengthen collective bargaining coverage and make skills count more than formal degrees in the public sector.

Volt wants equal pay for equal work. This should apply to everyone. Gender, origin, religion or disability should not matter. More companies should pay union-agreed wages. In public-sector jobs, experience should count more than a degree.

Equal pay would apply regardless of gender or sexual identity, religion, worldview, origin or disability. Collective bargaining coverage would be strengthened. Companies would get support in creating workplaces free of discrimination. Higher-graded public-sector positions would be awarded more on the basis of proven skills and work experience. According to the platform, this would distribute opportunities more fairly and address the skills shortage, for example in IT.

Volt wants to define racism and racist violence as specific legal terms in criminal law and remove the word "Rasse" (race) from all statutes. It also wants to expand counseling and contact points for people affected by discrimination.

Volt wants criminal law to name racism clearly. The word "race" should be removed from laws. People who face discrimination should find more places that help them. Volt also wants campaigns against hatred of Sinti and Roma.

Criminal law would be extended to include characteristics of group-focused hostility. The term "Rasse" would be replaced in every statute with different wording. The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency would be enlarged so that procedures move faster and more counseling and support are available. Victim counseling centers would receive funding, and the victims' compensation law would be applied consistently. Volt also plans campaigns against antiziganism based on the IHRA definition.

Volt wants a nationwide action plan against Islamophobia. The platform justifies this by saying Muslims face disadvantages in housing, education and employment.

Volt wants a plan against hostility toward Muslims for all of Germany. Volt says Muslims are often treated unfairly. Muslim women should get special protection. Researchers should study the causes.

The plan would combine education campaigns, help for civil society initiatives and awareness-raising in institutions. For Muslim women, the platform calls for preventive strategies and stronger security measures, since they also face gender-based hostility. Funding for intercultural and interfaith dialogue projects would grow. Studies on the causes and effects of Islamophobia would be funded nationwide.

Volt wants to better protect Jewish communities and fight antisemitism. The platform derives this from Germany's historical responsibility for the Holocaust.

Volt wants to protect Jewish communities better. There should be more officers and reporting offices against hatred of Jews. Schools should teach about the Shoah. The Shoah is the murder of Jews under the Nazis.

Volt recognizes the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Protection plans would be drawn up for Jewish communities, along with more antisemitism commissioners and reporting offices. The Shoah and antisemitism would be part of school curricula. To address poverty among Holocaust survivors, a fund for Jewish immigrants would be set up. The national and EU strategies against antisemitism would be advanced, and police and the judiciary would receive training.

Volt wants to shift legal guardianship for people with disabilities to supported decision-making and give preference to outpatient care at home. Elections and civic education would become accessible.

People with disabilities should decide more for themselves. Guardians should support them instead of deciding for them. Care should take place in their own home where possible. Polling places must be accessible. That means everyone can use them without barriers.

Under the supported decision-making model, people get help in making their own decisions. Care in a person's own home would take priority over special residential facilities. The state would fund accessible offerings in the arts, culture and sports. The European Accessibility Act, an EU law on accessibility, would be implemented faster. Accessibility would be mandatory for polling places, election documents would be uniform and easy to read, and the offerings of the Federal Agency for Civic Education would be reviewed regularly.

Volt wants to protect gender identity and sexual diversity in Article 3 of the Basic Law and introduce co-motherhood from birth. Conversion treatments would be banned completely.

Volt wants the constitution to protect queer people from unfair treatment. With two mothers, the second mother should count as a parent from birth. Conversion treatments should be fully banned. These are attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender.

Trans, intersex and non-binary people would be able to correct parenthood records to match their identity documents. They would have equal legal standing for reproductive treatments, with insurers covering the costs. Medical and psychological services for this group would be expanded and fully paid for. The ban on conversion treatments would also cover gender identity, and prosecution would extend to parents and guardians. Those affected could claim damages.

Volt wants to make feminism a guiding principle of politics. Budgets at every level of government would have to be planned in a gender-sensitive way, and every law would be checked for its effects on the genders. The party says this strengthens democracy and equality.

Volt wants politics to pay more attention to women. For every budget, officials should check how the money affects women and men. They should check this for every law too. Volt says this makes politics fairer.

Gender budgeting means that the effect on the genders is taken into account when public budgets are drawn up; Volt wants to make this mandatory at all levels of government. Under the heading of feminist mainstreaming, laws and policy measures would be systematically reviewed through gender impact assessments. The platform argues that political decisions must take all perspectives into account.

Volt wants to close the pay gap between women and men. It plans transparency duties for companies, legal criteria for equal pay, a 50 percent women's quota on supervisory boards and in leadership positions, and an end to Ehegattensplitting (joint tax splitting for married couples). The party sees this as a step toward equality and social justice at work.

Women often earn less than men. Volt wants to change that. Larger companies should publish their pay data. Half of the top jobs should go to women. Married couples should no longer get a joint tax break. In return, the child benefit should go up.

Companies with more than 150 employees would publish pay data broken down by gender every year. An oversight body would monitor equal pay and penalize violations. Workplace childcare would get tax incentives, flexible working hours would be expanded, and childcare in regions with a large pay gap would get special support. Mentoring and training programs would support women specifically. Ehegattensplitting would be replaced by individual taxation and a higher Kindergeld (child benefit), which the platform says would also break up outdated social structures.

Volt wants to fully implement the Istanbul Convention and protect women better against violence. It plans more places in women's shelters, round-the-clock emergency services, broader criminal liability and prevention that focuses on perpetrators. The platform calls gender-based violence a massive violation of human rights.

Volt wants to protect women better against violence. There should be more places in women's shelters. Staying there should be free. After a rape, help should be available fast, day and night. There should be more protection online too. Offenders should have to take courses.

Rape would be treated as a medical emergency, with nationwide anonymous violence and forensic emergency services around the clock, uniform rules for anonymous evidence collection and free medication. Protection would extend online, for example against catcalling, unsolicited pornographic images, cyber-harassment and revenge porn; new forms of harassment and violence would become criminal offenses. For prevention, civil society organizations would teach consent and violence awareness in schools from sixth grade, alongside recurring public campaigns. Perpetrators would have to complete courses in nonviolent communication.

Volt wants to repeal Section 218 of the Criminal Code and fully decriminalize abortion up to the 18th week of pregnancy. Mandatory counseling and waiting periods would end, and public health insurers would cover the costs. Non-commercial surrogacy and egg donation would also be legalized.

Volt wants to allow abortions up to the 18th week. They should no longer be a crime. Counseling should no longer be required. Health insurance should pay the costs. Egg donation should be allowed too. Parents should have more rights after a miscarriage.

Abortions would count as a regular medical service and be fully paid by public health insurance regardless of the reason; counseling would remain available on a voluntary basis. A law would secure access to sterilization. The platform bases this on freedom of choice over one's own reproduction. For parents who lose a child before or at birth, miscarriages would be treated legally like stillbirths, with special leave and guaranteed parental protection.