Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Projekte Veranstaltungen

Family diversity in Geneva – A side event on families and religion at the UN Human Rights Council

Deutsch

How can different types of families be better protected during and after the Covid-19 pandemic? Who decides what a family is, and (how) is religion being instrumentalised for this purpose? What obligations do UN member states have regarding family diversity? These are just some of the questions that civil society organizations discussed at a side event for the UN Human Rights Council.

Our goals are to make family diversity more visible and to highlight the experience and reality of rainbow families in different regional, cultural and religious contexts,” says Maria von Känel, co-founder and board member of International Family Equality Day (IFED), a global network for family diversity.

Throughout human history there have always been different models of family and community life,” adds Simon Petitjean from the Global Interfaith Network. “The UN system and its states have a responsibility to respect the human rights of all family members without distinction of any kind, and this is of particular importance in times of crisis when inequalities are heightened and reinforced.”

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Projekte Recht Veranstaltungen Verband

Our woman in Geneva: Patience pays off, Silke Voß-Kyeck reports on the UN Human Rights Council

Deutsch

As part of a project to raise the profile of international debates on human rights, Dr. Silke Voß-Kyeck discussed the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva – its work and history as well as current focuses – in an informative online talk with Sarah Kohrt from the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation on July 28. Voß-Kyeck earned a doctorate in political science and worked at Amnesty International Deutschland for many years before becoming the HRC reporter for our umbrella organization Forum Menschenrechte* in 2019, or simply “our woman in Geneva”.

Civil society plays an important role

The HRC was established in its current form in 2006, and has 47 member states. It meets for a total of ten weeks a year, but can also convene for special sessions on pressing issues and developments. Germany is one of the current members, coinciding with its membership in the UN Security Council. Since 2006, members have been elected for a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms in order to prevent long-term entrenched structures. More than 5,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world have consultative status at the HRC, which enables them to make brief presentations in the round assembly hall, submit statements, and organize side events in the complex of buildings that used to house the League of Nations in Geneva – events which right now may only be held online.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Projekte Veranstaltungen Verband

LBTI-inclusive Human Rights work in Southern Africa: the Masakhane Project





Invitation to an Online Talk of LSVD and Hirschfeld-Eddy-Foundation

When: Wednesday, 23. September, 5:00 — 6:00 PM CEST
Who:
Botho Maruatona, Botswana, Coalition of African Lesbians, Community and Campaigns Officer
Tash Dowell, Zimbabwe, Feminist Action Collective
Neo Kabi, Lesotho, Masakhane-Collective
Moderator: Cornelia Sperling, Masakhane project supporter for the LSVD and filia.

Beitrag

We’ll hear and discuss experiences from the South: The Masakhane Project “Promoting Human Rights in Southern Africa by strengthening Women NGO Activists – with a focus on Women’s Rights and SOGIE Rights” has been organized since 2014 by the Coalition of African Lesbians. Through strengthening feminist community building and advocacy work in six countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe — www.cal.org.za . Masakhane is supported by filia, the German Women’s Fund and and the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany LSVD and financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development — BMZ.

We will be in conversation with three activists from Southern Africa who are part of the Masakhane Project and learn about the critical perspective of the Coalition of African Lesbians on advocacy focusing on LGBTI rights in the broader context of the relationship between Global North and Global South. Competition, support, allyship, as well as the experiences of collective feminist movement building in the region will be topics of discussion.

Please register with name (and organization if applicable) before Sep 23 by email: c.sperling [at] reviera.de
The access link for the Zoom session will be sent to all registered users a few hours in advance by email.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Recht Veranstaltungen Verband

Web-Talk: Religion first? The Trump administration´s backlash against international law

Secretary Pompeo´s “Commission on Unalienable Rights”.Hirschfeld-Eddy-Foundation cordially invites you to a Web-talk with Mark Bromley, Chair of the Council for Global Equality (CGE) about the Trump adminstration´s attempt to redefine Human Rights. 

When: Tuesday, 15 September, 17–18 CEST
Who: Mark Bromley, JD, Chair of the Council for Global Equality
Moderator: Sarah Kohrt, Hirschfeld-Eddy-Foundation

Article

Pompeo’s clear interest is to undermine the growing consensus that universally accepted human rights can be claimed by all vulnerable minorities, including LGBTI people and women who wish to control their own bodies.” Julie Dorf, Council for Global Equality

Until recently, clear progress had been made in the movement towards women´s rights and the human rights of LGBTI people. In the UN and other multilateral institutions the United States had a global leadership role regarding the rights of LGBTI people. Along with other states, the US always voted in favor of these rights. But now the U.S. appears to have changed sides.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Projekte Veranstaltungen

Queer realities, safe spaces and decolonisation: Clementine E. Burnley and Tim B. Agaba

In the web-talk “African Writers in Migration: Clementine E. Burnley and Tim B. Agaba about Queerness, Space and Human Rights” on July 21st 2020, Tim B. Agaba and Clementine E. Burnley had a conversation about queer realities, self-censorship, safe spaces, racism, decolonisation, and how class hierarchies impact access to human rights.

Invitation
Deutsch

Tim B. Agaba and Clementine E. Burnley are both emerging writers. They met in a fairly random way. On the first day of Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus Trust (PHT) Creative Writing workshop (which has followed on from Farafina Workshop) they sat next to each other while Ms. Adichie battled through Lagos traffic.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Projekte Veranstaltungen Verband

Web-Talk: African Writers in Migration — Clementine E. Burnley and Tim B. Agaba about Queerness, Space and Human Rights

When: Tuesday, July 21, 8–9 PM CEST

Who: Clementine E. Burnley (Germany/UK), writer and public speaker
Tim B. Agaba (Uganda), writer and human rights lawyer

This Web-event will take place in English.

Hirschfeld-Eddy-Foundation and InterKontinental cordially invite you to a Web-Talk about Queerness, Space and Human Rights with Clementine Burnley and Tim B. Agaba.

Article
Einladung

In a sense a writer is always on the move, between contexts, between perspectives and historical moments. Sometimes the writers movement takes them through different geographies and sometimes the writer stays in the same place, while the characters the writer creates travel in the writers’ place. During the online event Clementine E. Burnley and Tim B. Agaba will consider their own writing lives.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Projekte Veranstaltungen Verband

Important in theory and good for practice

International Human Rights Debates from an LGBTI Perspective

Deutsch

Black lives matter! — demonstrations are taking place in countless cities on multiple continents. People are taking to the streets in memory of George Floyd and others to call for an end to racist violence. In Germany the terrorist attack in Hanau has shocked and unsettled precisely those who are affected by racism. Many fear becoming the object of violence themselves.

Racism is a violation of human rights. It includes the fostering of fear, or any action that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights, according to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) adopted in 1969.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Recht

Religion first? Trump seeks to redefine human rights

Beitrag auf Deutsch

If an international ministerial is convened to discuss a single human right, that must be a very special human right indeed. All the more so if the ministerial is hosted by the US government, which otherwise keeps its distance from such gatherings. In 2018 the US withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council, and has recently stopped funding the World Health Organization (and is even obstructing the work of the World Trade Organization). However, Washington has now held two international “Ministerials to Advance Religious Freedom”, in 2019 and 2018. Germany was represented by a delegation that included a state secretary from the CSU-led Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ).

Invitation

The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation has therefore sent a letter to the BMZ, warning it against privileging freedom of religion above all other human rights. We also reminded the BMZ that freedom of religion includes the right not to have any religion, and that LGBTI people are regularly prevented from practicing their religions, for example when they are unwelcome at churches.

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Veranstaltungen Verband

The churches must become part of the solution – and no longer part of the problem

Opening statement by Sarah Kohrt, LGBTI Platform for Human Rights at the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation, at the 2019 Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Protestant Church Conference)

Deutsche Fassung hier

Foto: Wolfgang Schürger

Thank you very much for the invitation to speak here, which I greatly appreciate. It is wonderful to see that the Kirchentag has had a Rainbow Center for many years now. That is an important step – just like events such as this one today.

My talk will consist of four theses. The first comes from a text written by Tim Kuschnerus, the managing director of the Protestant office of the Joint Conference Church and Development (GKKE), for the blog of the LSVD (Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany): “The Christian churches are part of the problem. This realization can lead to only one conclusion in my opinion: churches, and by that I mean primarily their development organizations here in Germany, must work toward becoming part of the solution.”

Kategorien
Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung

Congratulations to the LEGABIBO organization

Landmark judgment on decriminalization in Botswana

Deutsche Fassung hier

Good news from Botswana – on 11 June 2019 the country’s High Court lifted the ban on homosexual practices! Activists at the courtroom in the capital city of Gabarone broke into cheers and waved rainbow flags.

This landmark judgment, which resonates well beyond the borders of Botswana, will hopefully serve as a model in Africa and other Commonwealth nations! Our congratulations to the lesbians, gay men and bisexuals of Botswana and especially to the LEGABIBO organization (Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana), because it was instrumental in filing and successfully representing the case.

Criminalization violates the right to privacy