LGBTIQ+ Platform for Human Rights
Support and dialogue are crucial to the promotion and protection of human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (LGBTIQ+). The LGBTIQ+ platform for human rights builds networks and provides information and resources. The platform has been working with activists, government officials, scholars, migrant organizations, faith-based organizations, development cooperation specialists and NGOs since 2011. You are warmly invited to contact us for informal dialogue as well as about lectures, workshops and other resources.
To receive the newsletter, please send an email to Sarah Kohrt with the subject "Platform Newsletter".
The platform newsletter – networking with information: The LGBTIQ+ platform regularly alerts you to events, studies and reports on international LGBTIQ+ human rights.
- Project 2025: The Pink Factor – LGBITQ+ Rights, Geopolitical Conflict, and the Fight for Values and Resources will run from january 25 to december 26. Queer people have a special interest in democracy and the rule of law. Around the world, LGBTIQ+ people are at the forefront of democratic movements. They work together with feminist, indigenous and other liberation movements to promote human rights. They are active at the United Nations, help to shape international law, and fight for social justice. But in today’s interrelated crises around the world, LGBTIQ+ people are often instrumentalized into a negative role. Their own voices are barely heard. When authoritarians take power, their very first move is to cut the rights of women and queer people. This shows the endangered and fragile nature of progress made in international law over the past few decades. Together we need to preserve and protect it! Project website here, all events here and in the blog, tag: PF-2025.
- Project 2024: Cultures and colonialism. The project "Cultures and colonialism: LGBTIQ+ human rights and the decolonialization debate” will run from January to December 2024. What impact does European colonialism and missionary history have on the lives of queer people in countries that once were colonized? One legacy is the criminalization of homosexual acts and non-binary ways of life. The fight against these criminal laws is being led by people in the formerly colonized countries. The desire for freedom is coming from these countries themselves. Local movements view decriminalization as an act of decolonization. Paradoxically, precisely this advocacy for women’s and LGBTIQ+ human rights is being discredited as neo-colonial. Can there be a decolonial practice in development cooperation and international human rights work for LGBTIQ+ people? What should it look like? What consequences does missionary history have for gender roles today? We discuss these topics, present research findings and collect approaches for decolonial project work with and for LGBTIQ+ people. All events, videos and articles are available here and in the blog, tag: CaC-2024.
- Project 2023: We believe in change. The project “We believe in change: Human rights, freedom of religion or belief, and preventing anti-LGBTIQ+ violence and discrimination – a project to promote dialogue” ran from January to December 2023. It provided information about the lives of LGBTIQ+ people and the views of different religions. Its goals were to raise awareness of the sometimes lethal threats facing LGBTIQ+ people, and to inform and motivate people in general to take responsibility and act on the principle of “No violence!” All events, videos and articles are available here and in the blog, tag: WBIC-2023.
- Project 2022: Do no harm. The HES project “Do no harm – How to minimize risks for LGBTIQ+ in international human rights work” ran from January to December 2022. The “do no harm” general principle also applies to international efforts to promote and protect LGBTIQ+ human rights. Good intentions are not always put into practice successfully. This project publicized insights gained over many years in the field. We organized large and small-scale events to share expertise in international LGBTIQ+ work. Together with experts from the global South we developed questions and identified risks. All events, videos and articles are available here and in the blog, tag: DNH-2022.
- Project 2021: LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders. The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation’s project “Human rights defenders: Education, inclusion and intersectional practice” is an intensive informational campaign on the situation of LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders in different parts of the world that ran from January to December 2021. All the web talks, videos, audio material and articles are available here, and all the background information is also in the blog, tag: MRV-2021.
- Project 2020: International debates on human rights. The HES project “International debates on human rights – Information and participation from an LGBTIQ+ perspective” ran from May to December 2020. Events, publications and a major conference highlighted the important debates being held on LGBTIQ+ human rights. Topics included raising LGBTIQ+ concerns at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the intersectionality of LGBTI human rights with anti-racism and women’s rights, and the Beijing+25 process. Complete project documentation is available here, and all background articles can also be found in the blog, tag: HR-2020.
- The Yogyakarta Alliance: The LGBTIQ+ platform’s focus is the Yogyakarta Alliance, an open network for integrating LGBTI rights into foreign policy and development cooperation. Click here for the website. All articles on our calls to include LGBTIQ+ perspectives in foreign policy are available here in the blog. Following years of advocacy on our part, the German federal government passed the LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Plan for Foreign Policy and Development Cooperation in 2021.
- 2014-2018: Crossings & Alliances. This series of events organized by the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation about international LGBTIQ+ human rights included around 20 events held in numerous German cities from 2014 to 2018. An overview is available here, and all background articles, recordings and talks are found here in the blog, tag: Crossings&Alliances.
- All publications can be downloaded and ordered free of charge under the "Schriften“ heading.
- Reports, interviews, studies and other documents on the current state of LGBTIQ+ rights in the global South and eastern Europe are available from our virtual library and under the Newsheading.
- More forums and discussions are found in the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation’s blog and the respekt! magazine from the LSVD⁺ Federation Queer Diversity.
Sarah Kohrt, contact and project manager, LGBTIQ+ Platform for Human Rights
Email: sarah.kohrt(at)hirschfeld-eddy-stiftung.de
Address: Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation c/o LSVD⁺ Federation Queer Diversity, Almstadtstr. 7, 10119 Berlin, Germany
Following a resolution by the German parliament, the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation (HES) has been receiving project funds from the Federal Ministry of Justice since 2020. This support enables the foundation to carry out important one-year projects on international work for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex human rights.
The LGBTIQ+ Platform for Human Rights was kindly supported by Dreilinden gGmbH from 2011 to 2020. We thank Dreilinden for the generous encouragement and material support that made the LGBTIQ+ Platform for Human Rights possible.