A series of cross-regional dialogues on human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) were held in March and April 2013. These meetings, held in Nepal (for the Asia Pacific), Brazil (for the Americas and the Caribbean) and France (for Eastern and Western Europe) were convened to build upon the successful adoption of the 2011 resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity adopted by the Human Rights Council, and raise awareness of key issues, needs, challenges and priorities of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in order to discuss next steps for engaging the United Nations on critical issues relating to the human rights of LGBT people. The regional meetings, brought together LGBT civil society activists, state delegates and other stakeholders. LGBT civil society organizations in each region met prior to state level seminars to identify issues and make recommendations to the state delegates so that outcomes of each regional meeting could feed into a global conference in Oslo, Norway on April 15-16, co-hosted by Norway and South Africa.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and ARC International co-facilitated the Asia Pacific civil society regional meeting, held in Kathmandu, Nepal on March 21 and 22. IGLHRC’s Asia Program staff, Grace Poore and Ging Cristobal joined about 50 civil society activists from 25 Asia Pacific countries at this meeting. They also participated in the state level meeting on March 22-23 in Kathmandu.
A report of the outcome of the Nepal meetings is available for download.