One of the great things about being Executive Director of a network is that I sometimes get to go to really great events. Last night I had the pleasure of celebrating the work of Journalists for Human Rights, a member of Dignity Network Canada that supports journalists around the globe interested in telling stories and reporting on human rights issues, including the human rights of LGBTIQ people. Huge kudos to the JHR team including Bill Killorn, Zein Almoghraby, Mujtaba Haris for an awesome event. And always wonderful to see Rachel Pulfer who took a break from her fellowship in Boston to join everyone in Toronto. At at a time when human rights are under attack in so many ways around the world and we are in a wave of misinformation and online hatred, it was inspiring to hear from some of JHR's staff and fellows Siyabulela Mandela Ph.D. from South Africa (who also happens to be Nelson Mandela's great-grandson), Mustapha Dumbuya from Kenya, Shogofa Danish from Afghanistan and nozha ben mohamed from Tunisia. All amazing people doing incredible work in often very difficult situations. Feeling inspired and hopeful today about the positive power of media and proud to work with this organization.
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Right now, in many parts of the world, there is a rise in anti-rights / anti-gender politics, often being fuelled and funded by far right extremist movements, authoritarian governments and religious fundamentalists. These movements seek to use homophobia and transphobia as a political wedge issue - and the result in many places is increased discrimination towards our communities including new anti-LGBTIQ policies and legislation. This past week in Ottawa, Dignity Network Canada was so pleased to welcome as our guest, Rémy Bonny, the head of Forbidden Colours, an organization based in Belgium that monitors and advocates against anti-LGBTIQ politics in Europe. We convened representatives of over 20 embassies from Diplomats for Equality in collaboration with the Delegation of the European Union to Canada. We also hosted a discussion on the rise of anti-rights politics with Remy, journalist Rachel Gilmore, Latoya Nugent from Rainbow Railroad and German researcher Christian Donner. Thank you to Capital Pride • Fierté dans la Capitale and to CUPE National for their support of these events! There is much work to do in the years ahead, but I am hopeful that through dialogue, collaboration and education we will keep moving forward.
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This week in Montreal, as part of the Fierté Montréal events, Dignity Network Canada worked with Global Philanthropy Project and Égides - Alliance internationale francophone pour l'égalité et les diversités to launch a new report on the state of global LGBTI human rights movement funding from Canada. The report is a 'deeper dive' into the Canadian numbers from GPP's biannual Global Resources Report and includes a number of recommendations for the future of this work. It was just awesome great to work with Michael Arnaud, Cyril Hamel & the team from Egides on the launch events. Canada is now the third largest government funder of global LGBTI movements and I am so incredibly proud to have worked with our members across Canada, their partners abroad as well as colleagues at Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada in this journey. Kudos to Aurore Guieu, Ezra Berkley Nepon, David Scamell, Matthew Hart and everyone at GPP for their leadership and working with civil society & governments around the world to help advance our movements. And huge thank you to Victoria F. Legault for hosting, as well as federal Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan, Bloc Quebecois MP Andreanne Larouche and Quebec National Assembly Member Jennifer Maccarone for joining us to launch the report!
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A lot of people do not understand or know much about issues facing intersex people, the "I" in 2SLGBTIQ. Thus, it's been a real privilege to work with the good folks at Intersex Canada, one of Dignity Network Canada's newer members and an honour to speak at their inaugural conference this weekend. There are vibrant movements for the rights and dignity of intersex people all around the globe and seeing the growth of an intersex movement in Canada that is led by and for intersex folks, is so important. Kudos to friends at Egale Canada for always leading the charge on intersex rights and big congrats to Junic Wokuri, Katie Garrett and the rest of the Intersex Canada team for their hard work to set up this organization. Bravo and looking forward to what is ahead!
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As we approach Pride Weekend in many places in the world, it was an honour to be in Washington, DC this week on behalf of Dignity Network Canada at a historic convening of the US State Department on the human rights of LGBTQI+ people. Huge kudos to US Special Envoy Jessica Stern and her team for pulling together key leaders across the State Department and USAID including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, USAID Counsellor Clinton White, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti and many others. There is so much hard work to do to ensure that LGBTQI+ people and issues are integrated across all areas of foreign policy, including diplomacy, development aid, trade and asylum policy. No government is perfect, of course, but it was inspiring to be in a room with dedicated government officials, civil servants and LGBTQI+ activists from around the globe all doing their part to work towards freedom, safety and inclusion for LGBTQI+ people everywhere.
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Yesterday Dignity Network Canada along with our members and partners Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) and Pride Toronto organized a really timely and important conversation on the way that media in Canada are covering both local 2SLGBTIQ and global LGBTIQ issues. Huge thank you to my colleague Emmett Mark for moderating the conversation and our stellar panelists, former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Globe and Mail Deputy National Editor Rachel Giese and Louisa Wall, former NZ Member of Parliament and this year's Pride Toronto International Grand Marshal. Huge thanks to Bill Killorn, Mujtaba Haris and the rest of the JHR team for their collaboration and making this a great discussion on the challenges of covering SOGIESC issues and human rights today at home and abroad.
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As we approach the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (May 17th), I am reflecting upon the incredible work of Dignity Network Canada's global advisory and the work they did last week to advocate for Canada to do more to advance human rights for LGBTIQ people around the world in our foreign policy, international assistance programs and refugee policy. Prior to our roundtable meetings with Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada, human rights defenders from Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon, Ecuador, Colombia, Laos, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Lebanon and the Caribbean met with a dozen Canadian Members of Parliament from all parties, including five Canadian federal cabinet Ministers - Ministers Hon. Mélanie Joly (Foreign Affairs), Hon. Marc Miller (Immigration & Refugees), Hon. Gary Anandasangaree (Crown Indigenous Affairs), Hon. Ahmed Hussen (Intl Development), Hon. Randy Boissonnault (Employment) and Hon. Marci Ien (Women & Gender Equality), as well as Hon. Robert Oliphant, Anita Vandenbeld, Ali Ehsassi, Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Scott Aitchison, Larry Maguire, Eric Melillo, Randall Garrison and Andreanne Larouche. It would not be possible for many of these advocates to meet with politicians in their own countries. I was so inspired by watching my colleagues articulate the value of principled foreign policy and the importance of Canada doing more to support LGBTIQ folks around the world right now - and that all political parties - can and should support this work. Huge thanks to my team, especially Emmett Mark, Kenita Placide and everyone on the global advisory!
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We are thrilled to welcome Emmett Mark to the Dignity Network Canada secretariat team as our new Policy and Advocacy Officer! Emmett will work closely alongside our member-based Advocacy and Government Relations Working Group as well as our Executive Director Doug Kerr as the organization takes on new challenges and works to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ people around the world.
I am thrilled to be starting a new position as the inaugural Policy and Advocacy Officer at Dignity Network Canada to advance Canadian support for global LGBTQI+ and SOGIESC-inclusive human rights! 🌈 As global backsliding on human rights for sexual and gender diverse communities approaches a critical point, I'm proud to contribute to mobilizing a coalition of Canadian organizations promoting international human rights and combating hate. I'm excited to collaborate with wonderful civil society and government stakeholders to bring forward new campaigns and promote the continued growth of Network activities. 🌍🏳️🌈 Thank you to my colleagues at the The Parliamentary Centre | le Centre parlementaire for this past year; I look forward to future collaboration on shared goals. #humanrights #SOGIESC #LGBTQI #democracy #internationaldevelopment
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Job Opportunity!! This is a great job for a Communications specialist interested in human rights and international issues. See below. Deadline is March 15, 2024. Opportunité d'emploi! Un excellent poste pour un spécialiste de la communication intéressé par les droits humains au niveau international. Voir ci-dessous. La date limite est le 15 mars 2024. https://lnkd.in/gJYwJEQD
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End of year message from our ED Doug Kerr: The past year has felt like a pivotal moment for the rights of LGBTIQ people around the world. The year was filled with successes and legal victories but also disappointing setbacks including new anti-LGBTIQ laws, amid rising hatred and violence in many countries. In Canada, the rise of an organized, anti-gender / anti-rights movement, connected to this global backlash, has made many of us realize that we cannot be complacent here at home. What happens in Nashville, Moscow or Kampala has an impact here. The forces that oppose human rights are pushing back – from the United Nations down to local school boards. We should all be concerned about where this could go in the next decade. But I am also leaving 2023 with pride and optimism in our ability to organize and collaborate for change. When I reflect upon the work of our 67 members across Canada, especially since we were created in 2016, it’s remarkable to think of the growth of our shared work on international solidarity with communities around the world. I won’t single out any particular organization, but within our membership, there are wonderful organizations who are trailblazers at the international level. There are international cooperation organizations that never had conversations about SOGIESC issues until just a few years ago, who are now developing new inclusion policies and partnerships with our communities. And there are many 2SLGBTIQ organizations in our membership who have expanded their international solidarity work. This past year alone saw five of our members start new projects funded by the Act Together for Inclusion Fund with partners in francophone Africa, Honduras, Ghana, Jamaica, Fiji, Tunisia & Morocco – and it will be exciting in 2024 to see these projects unfold. I’m also proud that Dignity Network Canada, as a coalition, has over the past year, continued to work closely with partners in the Canadian government and build bridges to all parties in parliament. Support for human rights for LGBTIQ folks around the world should not be a partisan issue in this country and we will continue to do this important outreach and education work with our friends at the Canadian Pride Caucus and across all of parliament. Looking towards 2024, with new supporters including government, foundations, unions and individuals, we are launching a new period of growth for Dignity Network Canada. Our small but mighty team is expanding. We will be launching Beyond Borders, a new campaign to ensure that progress on SOGIESC inclusion in Canadian foreign policy and development aid, continues into the future. We will be ramping up our policy and communications capacity with the addition of two new staff. Led by a brilliant Board of Directors, we are also launching a new strategic planning process to determine our future and I’m looking forward to talking to all of our members and partners about what this looks like. Doug
