On 4 March 2023, the Centre for Human Rights SOGIESC Unit team was in Cape Town to commemorate the final event on the World Pride calendar. The Pride Festival, hosted by Cape Town Pride and Outreach Africa, was supported by various organisations involved in the realisation of rights and freedoms of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, non-binary, asexual, polysexual, genderqueer and gender variant people (LGBTIQ+) community throughout the African region.
The SOGIESC Unit team, represented by Naledi Mpanza and Nathan Milanzi, both project officers of the Centre for Human Rights, engaged the Festival attendants and shared advocacy and information materials produced by the SOGIESC Unit. These resources include the ‘Fact sheet on intersex persons’ and the ‘Your Go-to Law, The Equality Court of South Africa, Your-Go-to Court’ pamphlets. The Pride Festival was a great opportunity to meet with our existing networking partners in Cape Town as well as create new relationships with organisations working on creating safer spaces, promoting visibility, facilitating training and providing competent care for members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
The organisers of the event also shared how Pride provides a platform for every part of Cape Town’s LGBTIQ+ community to raise awareness of LGBTIQ+ issues and campaign for the freedoms that will allow them to live their lives on a genuinely equal footing.
The Centre for Human Rights continues to support LGBTIQ+ visibility and spaces through engagement with community-based organisations and outreach visits to the LGBTIQ+ community spaces in South Africa. We reiterate our belief that equality on the African continent will not be achieved until equality for LGBTIQ+ persons is achieved as well. We are also committed to empowering LGBTIQ+ individuals and groups in South Africa to claim their constitutional right to equality through the domestic equality laws in South Africa and we welcome new network partnerships that will help towards the full realisation of LGBTQI+ rights in South Africa and across Africa.
For more information on the protection of SOGIESC rights in South Africa, contact:
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743
ayodele.sogunro@up.ac.za
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743
naledi.mpanza@up.ac.za