Bringing together over 18 activists and lawyers, the Centre for Human Rights (Centre) held a capacity building workshop on strategic litigation and advocacy for LGBTIQ+ Advocates in Africa from 24 to 28 July, 2023. The capacity building workshop which has been held annually for the last 4 years aims at enhancing the skills of experienced activists in Africa in strategic litigation and advocacy towards the protection of sexual and gender minorities on the continent.
The workshop started with a visit to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a longstanding partner the Centre. The day began with welcoming remarks by Mr Lloyd Kuveya, assistant Director of the Centre, and Mr Landilani Banda, acting manager of the SOGIESC unit (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression, and Sexual Characteristics). The speakers emphasised the importance of the workshop in an increasingly hostile environment for sexual and gender minorities in Africa. His Excellency, Mr Han Peters, Ambassador to South Africa, spoke thereafter and welcomed the participants. He reiterated the importance of the training in the face of the anti-gender mobilisation and the wave of increased penalisation in some parts of Africa.
Substantively the training was hosted at Hotel @ Hartfield where participants received presentations from experienced scholars and human rights defenders in advocacy and strategic litigation within the African context. Presentations ranged from creating and building a strategic advocacy and litigation plan, framing sexual and gender minorities’ rights advocacy and litigation, optimising the outcomes of litigation, conducting advocacy in highly religious environments and using Resolution 275 for advocacy. The workshop also included interactive exercises focused on building advocacy and strategic litigation plans based on Resolution 275 at the national and African regional levels. Participants, who were divided in groups, show cased their experience and what they learnt from the workshop with innovative advocacy and litigation plans using Resolution 275.
The workshop also had a wellness session focusing on the mental wellbeing of participants. During this session participants expressed not only their own challenges as activists but the challenges of their communities in coping with the hostile social and legal environment in which they work under.
The Centre thanks the participants and presenters for taking part in the workshop. The Centre also specially thanks its partners, the kingdom of the Netherlands and Sweden, for their support.
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
landilani.banda@up.ac.za
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3151
ch.vanderlinde@up.ac.za
