Webtalk and Workshop with the Yogyakarta Alliance and activists from Namibia and Rwanda, April 18, 2024
Three years ago, on March 3, 2021, the German government’s LGBTI inclusion strategy for Foreign Policy and Development Cooperation was adopted. The concept references colonialism and missionary history as important aspects. The concept and this reference are a result of years of advocacy by LSVD, Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation and the Yogyakarta Alliance.
In its 13-point paper the Alliance had called for the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development to set up a program to promote research into gender histories and the history of homosexuality in partner countries. The first monitoring of the LGBTI inclusion concept is now due in 2024. In this event we will discuss the situation from a civil society perspective.
Together with the Yogyakarta Alliance and activists from Namibia and Rwanda, we want to discuss the specific challenges of LGBTIQ+ inclusion in international human rights work. Join us in this webtalk, followed by two workshops in which we will discuss this in more depth. The aim is to develop ideas together for a postcolonial approach to LGBTIQ* human rights work.
When: Thu, April 18, 15:30–16:15 CEST Webtalk, 16:15–17:30 CEST Workshop + Roundup
Where: Zoom Please register here
Language: The event will be held in English and German, with simultaneous interpretation for the plenary sections. The workshops are being held in English or German only.
Program:
15:30 Welcome by Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation and Yogyakarta Alliance
15:40 German colonial history: a very brief introduction, Prof. Dr. Henning Melber, Uppsala University
15:50 Keynote 1: Namibia: Colonialism and effects on gender images, Florence |Khaxas (YFem Namibia)
16:00 Keynote 2: Effects of colonial history/mission history on queer ways of life in Rwanda, Reverend Augustin Bahati, Executive Director of the Inclusive Mission for Health and Hope (IMHH)
16:10–16:20 Break
16:20–17:00 Two parallel workshops
Workshop 1 (English) with Liz Frank, Women’s Leadership Centre (WLC) Namibia: Aspects of decolonial project work, postcolonial practice
Workshop 2 (German) Monitoring LGBTI inclusion concept: with Rupert Haag, spokesperson Queeramnesty (Amnesty International Deutschland): Monitoring LGBTI inclusion concept, What are our demands to the German government?
17:00 Plenary: Summary from workshops (5 min per workshop)
17:10- 17:30 Discussion and roundup.
Links and Background information:
Website of the Yogyakarta-Alliance
German Government´s LGBTI-inclusion concept for foreign policy and development cooperation (German)
Civil Society called for an LGBTI-inclusion concept
A Hirschfeld-Eddy-Foundation event as part of the project “Cultures and Colonialism ‒ The struggle for LGBTIQ+ human rights in light of the decolonization debate” from the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation.
Contact: Sarah Kohrt, Project manager: sarah.kohrt [at] hirschfeld-eddy-stiftung.de