Human Rights Instruments Commonly Used by Human Rights Defenders - an InterPride Workshop

Human Rights Instruments Commonly Used by Human Rights Defenders - an InterPride Workshop

Oscar Atadero, veteran LGBTI human rights activist from the Philippines, conducted a capacity building workshop for the promotion of LGBTI rights using international legal instruments during the annual convention of the International Association of LGBTI Pride Organizers (InterPride) at Long Beach, California on 21 October 2010.

Titled "Human Rights Instruments Commonly Used by HR Defenders," the workshop provided a beginner's primer on the common international and regional laws and mechanisms that can help activists in their work to defend civil and political rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersexed people, and also human rights defenders who are investigating human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The workshop introduced new and old human rights workers in the InterPride networks to toolkits widely available from intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations, the European Union, Organization of American States and hundreds of structures that are created by these organizations. Atadero designed the workshop to make InterPride members organization from all over the world aware that human rights instruments can be easily used by LGBTI advocates for themselves and to aid distressed LGBTI people living in other countries other than their own.

Atadero highlighted the importance of working with Special Procedures and Working Groups in providing information to the UN system so that violators of human rights can be taken to account. These procedures are independent experts working under the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and have been proven to build legal basis for the defense of human rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The workshop is a part of the three-day InterPride conference that is hosted by the Long Beach Pride Committee. The conference also provided other skills building trainings on event organizing, financial management, networking, sponsorships, and international cooperation.

Mr. Atadero is the Interpride Regional Director for Region 19 that covers most of Asia. He was one of the organizers of the first gay pride parade in the Asian region in 1994 and joined InterPride in 2001.

The region has seen an upsurge of alarming incidents of human rights violations against transgender, gay and lesbian individuals, which makes it extremely difficult for maintaining Pride events in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

The workshop also included an introduction to the importance of the Yogyakarta Principles, a set of legal frameworks derived from major United Nations treaties and obligations that impact on sexual orientation and gender identity components of human rights. The Yogyakarta Principles, Atadero said, can be used by HR defenders to challenge homophobic and repressive laws, policies and practices, such as the death penalty for same-sex relations in more than 75 countries.

The general meeting of the InterPride association is an annual exchange attended by hundreds of local LGBTI leaders and Pride event organizers. The yearly meeting confers attendees from the developing world with skills, knowledge and tools for starting and maintaining Pride events in difficult situations.

InterPride is a resource center for LGBTI advocates for effective organizing of LGBTI Prides, especially for advocates in countries where public gatherings for pride events are either banned, harassed by hooligans and religious fundamentalists, or silenced by family or societal pressures.

For more information on InterPride, visit the website at www.interpride.organde http://www.longbeachpride.com/pages/ip/workshop.html

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