Global Equality Caucus

Thank you to everyone who attended the Global Equality Summit earlier this month. 50 legislators from 25 countries were joined by over 150 delegates to identify and agree common agendas as we work towards LGBT+ equality, across three days of intensive policy work. The Summit had a core focus on Global South leadership and we are proud to have facilitated many conversations between peers so legislators can benefit from a wider network of support. Many thanks to our speakers, including many inspiring parliamentarians from the GEC network, as well as to our organising partners The Other Foundation, Parliamentarians for Global Action and Human Dignity Trust for their support implementing an enriching programme. Despite numerous contemporary challenges to global LGBT+ rights, we are encouraged by the vigour to advance inclusive policies demonstrated by legislators attending the Summit, and we are optimistic about developing this work and further cultivating strong partnerships in 2025. 🌍 🏳️🌈

It is exactly one month until the Global Equality Summit begins in Cape Town (11-13 November 2024), with 120 delegates expected to attend a three-day programme focused on driving change for LGBTIQ+ people. The Summit will welcome over 50 legislators representing every world region, as well as representatives from international civil society, multilateral organisations, governments and inclusive businesses. Global South legislators will share strategies on how this change can be won in the face of common challenges, including the legacy of colonialism and structural barriers such as religious intolerance and democratic backsliding. The programme will be executed by the Global Equality Caucus in collaboration with our organising partners The Other Foundation, Parliamentarians for Global Action and the Human Dignity Trust, with all four organisations taking a leading role in facilitating conversations between legislators, civil society experts and community leaders. Key speakers and panelists for the Summit will be announced over the coming weeks. 🌍🏳️🌈 https://lnkd.in/ecqfMk-g

🖇️ Partnership News 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ 📍 London, United Kingdom 🇬🇧 🖊️ Today, the Global Equality Caucus and Human Dignity Trust represented by its Head of Legal, Ariane (Ariagni) Adam, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, coordinating and collaboration on our common goal of advancing the right of the #LGBTQI community. 💡 Human Dignity Trust is legal charity working to support strategic litigation to challenge laws that persecute people on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and legislative reform to repeal or amend such laws or promote new laws that protect LGBT rights. ❗️64 jurisdictions criminalise private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity. The majority of these jurisdictions explicitly criminalise sex between men via ‘sodomy’, ‘buggery’ and ‘unnatural offences’ laws. Almost half of them are Commonwealth jurisdictions and 12 countries have jurisdictions in which the death penalty is imposed or at least a possibility for private, consensual same-sex sexual activity. At least 6 of these implement the death penalty – Iran 🇮🇷, Northern Nigeria 🇳🇬, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, Somalia 🇸🇴 and Yemen 🇾🇪 – and the death penalty is a legal possibility in Afghanistan 🇦🇫, Brunei 🇧🇳, Mauritania 🇲🇷, Pakistan 🇵🇰, Qatar 🇶🇦, UAE 🇦🇪 and Uganda 🇺🇬. ⏰ Over the past years, both organisations have, on multiple occasions, collaborated during different events and gatherings involving legislators, working towards #Equality and #Inclusion of the community. Furthermore, Human Dignity Trust was one of the official 21 partners of the Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride & EuroGames #HumanRights Forum during my previous job as Director of Human Rights. 🫱🏻🫲🏿In a world that is more and more divided, collaborations and coordination between organisations with common goals is increasingly important and we are excited for our future engagements. #ForEquality #YouAreIncluded

🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 Today was a “home run” for me, meeting with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa 🇳🇱🇪🇺 her Excellence, Ambassador Joanne Doornewaard together with our Regional Manager for Africa Ricki Kgositau. The Global Equality Caucus will host its first Global Equality Summit in Cape Town, in November this year, and we are gathering support for the events, taking place in the sidelines of the ILGA World Conference taking place in the week of the 11th of November in South Africa. 🇿🇦 Apart from a one day pre-conference at the ILGA World Conference on Monday the 11th of November bringing together legislators and a group of activists, we will organize our two-day Equality Summit, bringing together legislators from global south countries to discuss #Equality of the #LGBTQI community, including NGOs and CSOs. Our work in Latin America and Africa has been growing significantly and we are looking to extend our work into Asia over the course of the next year, strengthening our South to South Engagement, focused on interactions between legislators from countries in the Global South. The outcomes of the discussions in Cape Town, will also provide input for our 2025-2026 Strategy and for this years EQUAL RIGHTS COALITION conference in Berlin, to which the Equal Rights Coalition is an NGO partner, bringing the voice of legislators to the Committee on National Laws and Policies. The pressure on our community and other #HumanRights Movements is growing and more and more newly elected governments are looking to diminish the voice of minorities in policies and laws, if not wipe out #visibility and #inclusion entirely. We keep on working towards the inclusion of all and will not stop fighting until we are all equal. There is a long way to go, but giving up is never an option. #ForEquality #YouAreIncluded

Maputo, Mozambique 🇲🇿 Today I had a fruitfull meeting with our colleagues at Lambda Mozambique, focused on the engagement of Lusophone legislators in our work for #LGBTQI #Inclusion and #HumanRights. #Lusophone countries are countries where Portuguese is used as an official language, being, from big to small, Brazil 🇧🇷, Angola 🇦🇴, Mozambique 🇲🇿, Portugal 🇵🇹, Guinea-Bissau 🇬🇼, Equatorial Guinea 🇬🇳, Timor-Leste 🇹🇱, Cape Verde 🇨🇻 and São Tomé e Príncipe 🇸🇹. With the ILGA World Conference taking place in Cape Town in November 2024, the Global Equality Caucus in collaboration with different regional and global partners, is bringing legislators from the Global South to Cape Town for a three day Equality Summit. With EuroPride EPOA in Lisbon coming up in June 2025, there is momentum building towards the creation of a cross country platform for legislators and CSOs from some of the above mentioned countries, supporting the drive for positive change for the community living in Lusophone countries. Our Africa Regional Manager Ricki Kgositau and our Lusophone Engagement Officer María A. Revelo-Imery will be leading the work, conducting different country visits engaging with legislators, CSOs and other stakeholders. Before I will fly back to Johannesburg tonight, I will be visiting different embassies in Maputo, discussing a potential in country engagement including legislators and government, taking place before the October elections in Mozambique. Maybe it’s time to pick up Portuguese as a new language; something that will surely be beneficial. We should never stop learning. #YouAreIncluded #ForEquality

🚨 GOOD NEWS ALERT! #Greece 🇬🇷 DID IT 🏳️🌈 The Greek parliament officially voted to legalize same sex marriage and equal parental rights for same sex couples on Thursday evening, making Greece the first Christian Orthodox majority country to do so. Greece will be the 16th #EuropeanUnion country 🇪🇺 and the 37th country in the world to legalise same sex marriage, granting long overdue right for the #LGBT+ community. We are not talking about luxury rights, we are talking about mere #equality and the need of speaking out against #discrimination. Imagine not being able to visit your sick partner in the hospital, or inherit even the most basic items with personal and emotional value, because hey, your love and partnership 🥰 is not legitimate enough under the law of your jurisdiction, to have these rights. Same sex couples in Greece will now be able to pick up their child, raised with love, from school, or take them on a trip without ridiculous paperwork proving that there is the necessary permissions from the “real parent”… Center Right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted that these rights were a matter of #EqualRights saying there should be no “Second Class Citizens or Children of a lesser God.” The bill passed with 176 votes for and 76 against in a 300-seat parliament. As the Interim Director of the Global Equality Caucus, I am proud of the work and dedication of these Greek legislators, standing at the right side of history, also noting that #inclusion should not be party specific, it should be something all legislators work towards, even under pressure of hateful opposition from, in this case, the country’s powerful Orthodox Church amongst other institutions and individuals. The photo below was taken during Athens Pride, back in 2018, when me and my friends in it from respectively Belgium, the USA and Australia already had the rights. Please do not forget our support cannot end when we ourselves, got our rights, we need to keep on fighting for the rights of others, because we can’t speak about true equality, when we are not all equal. Raise your Voice and Fight Together! #ForEquality #YouAreIncluded

Over the past year the Global Equality Caucus has grown and formalised a regional network in Southern Africa, following dedicated in-region work to engage with parliamentarians on LGBT+ rights and connect them with expert civil society stakeholders. We are pleased to announce today that this work will continue with a multi-year funding commitment from the UK Government. The new funding agreement through to 2027 means we are able to build further momentum towards sustainable change and expand work beyond our initial priority countries of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa to also include Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles and Zambia. Staff working in the region will engage with legislators to strengthen understanding on LGBT+ issues and draft inclusive laws, developing practical steps to ensure minority rights are at the heart of legislative agendas in Southern Africa and into the greater region. https://lnkd.in/edSDCYur