Forum for Dignity Initiative (FDI) is one of the key members of Asia Pacific Alliance (APA) and works to advance the SRHR movement in Pakistan. Uzma Yaqoob, FDI Executive Director, shares and celebrates a recent meeting and opportunity created by the alliance for its partners. Uzma reflects how the HRC is a valuable platform for reiterating the rights for the most vulnerable and marginalized, and how the geo-political scenario plays a crucial role towards achieving the goals.
The month of June in Geneva holds a great significance for human rights activists, particularly those advocating for the rights of all without any discrimination based on gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation. The Human Rights Council (HRC) marked its 50th anniversary this June, and it has indeed come a long way since its inception. It was interesting to see Pakistan elected for HRC membership as ironically, Pakistan does not recognize many of the rights pertaining to sexual health, bodily autonomy, and choices. Unfortunately, while at the 50th session of HRC the mandate of IE on SOGIE is being renewed, Pakistan is regressively criminalizing homosexuality.
The week at Geneva was marked with advocacy training, political discussions, the role of the regions and allies, and a pointed focus on who comes from where and who holds more space and how those spaces are curated or controlled. Highly invested efforts by CSOs are something to be applauded, it is not easy to share the room with your state/country mission while both have an altogether different set of beliefs and voices on different rights and advocacy. It involves the serious potential of risk backlash in our home country!
Informal and interactive dialogues during the week remained areas of my interest and focus, the oral statements by the CSOs and collective were powerful. And it was APA that made such exchanges possible. More of such conversations, meetings and platforms are needed where women and LGBTQIA+ find more spaces together and are able to draw attention towards the lack of gender equality and equity.
During the week spent at Geneva, I was able to reconnect with partners, allies and friends working for sexual and gender minorities across the world, and also make new connections to further the cause. Meeting and visiting a few of the important organizations such as SRI, UNFPA, ILGA World, RFSL, RFSU was very useful, and I hope it will translate into long term potential partnership in one way or the other.
Asia Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (APA) had taken a leadership role to bring some of its partners to this space. We, as members of the alliance, appreciate the efforts and are mindful of the coordination needed to bring activists to these spaces in-person. I would strongly recommend that APA mobilize more resources to create similar opportunities for brainstorming and training at global as well as regional platforms. We value APA’s concerted efforts to bring voices from countries like Pakistan, Nepal in South Asia that face huge lack of inclusion and are constantly struggling to achieve human rights goals. The leadership at APA is well acknowledged and the push to get siloed voices into mainstream action is very well undertaken by the Coordinating Office.
