A Decade of Action: building a new youth movement for LGBTIQ human rights
July 23rd 2021: Share, Learn.
This event will feature two inter-generational segments. To ensure impactful and engaging discussions, these segments will not be based on presentations of prepared statements, but rather dynamic conversations between speakers, facilitated by the United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth, Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake and the UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity (IE SOGI), Victor Madrigal-Borloz.
The first segment named “COVID-19: Turning point LGBTIQ youth” will invite speakers to reflect on the situation of young LGBTIQ people and key challenges that need attention as the world adjusts to a “new normal”, as well as the actions and policy changes needed to create positive change for a more equal world. Focus will also be placed on queer youth-led action to address the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second segment named “The Path for Change: Meaningful Participation of LGBTIQ Youth” will focus on the challenges, opportunities and importance of young LGBTIQ people’s meaningful participation, and discuss how to create more inclusive and diverse spaces for decision making in order to influence the change we want to achieve by 2030.
The event will also feature creative elements and a video presentation of the Queer Youth Dialogues, introducing the campaign to the global public audience present at the session.
This event will be hosted on Zoom . To ensure a safe space for all participants, the chat function will be disabled throughout.
This event will be co-hosted by the OSGEY, the IE SOGI, ILGA World and the Global Queer Youth Network, in partnership with UN Women and UNESCO.
Panel Speakers
Jayathma Wickramanayake
UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth - Moderator
Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake was appointed as the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth in June 2017 at the age of 26. She is the youngest senior official in the UN and the first woman to hold this position. In this role, Jayathma works to expand the UN’s youth engagement and advocacy efforts across all four pillars of the organization’s work — sustainable development, human rights, peace and security, and humanitarian action — and serves as a representative of and advisor to the Secretary-General.
In 2019 Jayathma was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the “Time 100 Next: Rising stars shaping the future” and in 2020 she was recognized by Forbes magazine as part of its “30 under 30” list.
Originally from Sri Lanka, Ms. Wickramanayake has worked extensively on youth development and participation, including playing a key role in transforming the youth development sector in her home country.
Prior to taking up her post, Ms. Wickramanayake was instrumental in creating the movement for civic and political engagement of young people, especially young women, in Sri Lanka through the “Hashtag Generation” movement. Previously, she advocated for global youth development on an international level including as the first ever Sri Lankan Youth Delegate to the United Nations and as the youth lead negotiator and member of the International Youth Task Force of the World Conference on Youth 2014 where she played a critical role in mainstreaming youth in the Post-2015 Process and in the establishment of World Youth Skills Day.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz
UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity - Moderator
Victor Madrigal-Borloz was appointed as UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity in late 2017. His initial three-year term started on 1 January 2018. He is the second Independent Expert to serve in this capacity. A Costa Rican jurist, Mr. Madrigal-Borloz is a senior visiting researcher at Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, in residence at Harvard Law School from July 2019 to December 2023.
Ms. Asa Regner
UN Women Deputy Executive Director
Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination and Programme Results of UN Women.
Ms. Åsa Regnér serves as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, since May 2018.
Ms. Regnér served since 2014 as Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality of Sweden, where her focus was on concrete results in the implementation of Swedish gender equality policies as well as a shift towards prevention of violence against women and the involvement of men and boys in gender equality work.
She has extensive experience in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment, having held various leadership positions in government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the United Nations. She has led important processes and campaigns as a leading advocate for feminism and gender equality in Sweden and beyond. She has built and managed strong partnerships with a range of key stakeholders, including women’s movements and civil society, both at the global and in country contexts.
She previously served as UN Women Country Director in Bolivia (2013-2014) and Secretary-General of Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning, Swedish International Planned Parenthood Federation branch. She also served as Director of Planning, Ministry of Justice (2004-2006) and as Political Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office (1999-2004). She began her career in women’s rights as a volunteer for a Swedish NGO in La Paz, Bolivia (1990- 1991) and moved to the Ministry of Labour working on Gender and labour market issues for several years in the 1990s.
Ms. Regnér holds a master’s degree in Democratic Development from Uppsala University. Born in 1964, she has two children.
Ms. Vibeke Jensen
Director of the Division for Peace and Sustainable Development at UNESCO
Since 1st January 2020 Vibeke Jensen is the incumbent Director of the Division for Peace and Sustainable Development within the Education Sector at UNESCO Headquarters. The Division covers, amongst others, education for sustainable development, global citizenship education, prevention of violent extremism, sexuality and HIV education, school violence and bullying, school health, and the UNESCO Associated Schools network with 11000 schools around the world.
She joined UNESCO in 1989 and has held various positions in the Organization, both at Headquarters and in the field. Since November 2014, she has been Director of the UNESCO Office in Islamabad and UNESCO Representative to Pakistan. Her previous positions include Head of the UNESCO Office in Hanoi from 2007 to 2009, Director of the UNESCO Office in Dar-es-Salaam Salaam (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, United Republic of Tanzania) from 2009 to 2013 and UNESCO Director and Head, Secretariat of the Secretary-General's Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), United Nations, New York from 2013 to 2014.
Tuisina Ymania Brown
Co-Secretary General of the ILGA World
Tuisina Ymania Brown is a trans fa'afafine woman of colour from Samoa and is a survivor of child rape, institutionalised discrimination, spousal gender-based violence and abuse, racial profiling, and anti-trans violence and persecution throughout her life.
She is a public speaker, an intellectual property attorney, and a working mum to two adopted sons. She has over 20 years of volunteer experience in international NGOs, and has affiliations with Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (International Advisory Board member), Global Interfaith Network on Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (former Co-Chair), Samoa Fa’afafine Association (former Technical Advisor), and Copenhagen2021 (International Advisory Board). She currently heads the International Trans Fund (co-Chair) and ILGA World (co-Secretary-General).
Pip Gardner
Chief Executive of The Kite Trust
Pip Gardner (They/Their or Ze/Zir) is the Chief Exec of The Kite Trust, supporting LGBTQ+ young people and promoting gender and sexuality inclusive communities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, in the UK. They are also a member of the Generation Equality Youth Task Force, convened by UN Women. They are a passionate advocate for youth work, non-formal education, gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights.
Anbid Zaman
Executive Board Member Cologne Pride
Anbid Zaman (all pronouns) is a 25-year-old activist who started their voluntary service in advocating for LGBTQIA+ human rights at 16 in Bangladesh working for the first-ever LGBTIQ magazine, Roopbaan in their country of origin. They’ve lived in Cologne since 2016 due to their personal security. Anbid is serving on the executive board of Aktionsbündnis gegen Homophobie e. V. since 2017, where they campaigned for marriage equality in Germany and now for constitutional protection based on SOGI in Germany. Anbid is also an executive board member at the Cologne Pride, responsible for international affairs and arts and culture. They are an active member of the Global Queer Youth Network and Queer European Asylum Network. They are currently working at rubicon e. V. as the state expert conceptualizing and providing qualification-trainings to government structures on LGBTIQ and migration in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Anbid is also serving their second mandate in representing LGBTIQA+ youth from the European and Central Asian Region to the ILGA World Youth Steering Committee. They are President & Chair of the Board of Directors for the Global Center, an NGO that creates freedom through education for LGBTI+ youth globally and was recently awarded the prestigious Diana Award in 2021 for their extensive work in LGBTIQA+ rights for the past 10 years of their life.
Alumbugu Basiru
African Queer Youth Initiative
Alumbugu Basiru is a human rights lawyer with a history of working for the Media industry and various non-profit Organizations. As a human rights and social justice advocate; he is an African Change-makers Fellow (ACF) as well as a justice Fellow of the Bisi Alimi Foundation (BAF). Before joining African Queer Youth Initiative, Alumbugu served as the human rights officer for the International Centre for Advocacy on Right to Health (ICARH) working to promote human rights, access to justice systems and equality for the LGBTIQ community in Nigeria and Africa at large. He is the Programs Manager at the African Queer Youth Initiative
Martin Karadzhov
Chair of the Youth Steering Commitee
Elected at the ILGA World Conference, Wellington, March 2019
Martin has been involved in the field of SRHR, LGBTI rights and HIV prevention since he was 13 years old. He started as a peer educator in Bulgaria and later became a youth coordinator of a domestic violence charity, where he worked with young people from diverse backgrounds - Roma youth, youth with disabilities, carers and juvenile offenders. He has also been a member of International youth networks such as YouAct and YPEER. Since then, he has been actively involved with youth advocacy at the European and international level and has worked for several youth NGOs in different countries.
He currently works for METRO charity, where he leads an LGBTQI youth service and trains professionals on inclusion. He also works for Consortium, the national umbrella and membership organisation for the UK LGBT+ charitable and voluntary sector, where he supports over 110 LGBTI+ groups and organisations and leads on a mapping project in London.