ABOUT

What is dignity for all?

The Dignity for All: LGBTQI+ Assistance Program is a consortium of six leading human rights and LGBTQI+ organizations that provides three short-term mechanisms to support LGBTQI+ movements: rapid-response financial assistance for individuals and CSOs under threat for their human rights work; project funding to CSOs/groups for time-sensitive initiatives; and holistic safety and security trainings, including well-being and digital security. Dignity for All provides rapid response financial assistance to at-risk HRDs and CSOs to allow the continuation of their LGBTQI+ rights work. It supports short-term rapid response security, opportunity, and advocacy rapid response (SOAR) grants for CSOs/groups to counteract urgent threats and to take advantage of unexpected opportunities to advance the rights of LGBTQI+ people. Proactive holistic security workshops and trainings including well-being support are available to assist organizations to continue their work more safely.

 

WHo are the dignity consortium members?

  • Akãhatã is our regional partner in Latin America. Founded by a group of activists in Buenos Aires, Akãhatã has strong relationships with activists and rights groups across the continent, as well as regional coalitions like RedLacTrans, the Latin America Network of Transgender People, and the Coalition Working Group of LGBT Organizations at the Organization of American States (OAS). Keenly attuned to on-the-ground realities in South America, Akãhatã works with its networks to design tailored rights protection and advocacy programs and produce high quality reports based on comprehensive original data. In addition to Akãhatã’s wealth of knowledge and language skills, their partnership represents an important opportunity for North-South cooperation.

  • Freedom House is a non-profit non-governmental organization that works to advance freedom and democracy around the world. Freedom House serves as the administrative lead of the Dignity for All Program.

  • ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA), is a non-governmental umbrella organization bringing together 600 organizations from 54 countries in Europe and Central Asia. ILGA-Europe was established as a separate region of ILGA and an independent legal entity in 1996. The three pillars of ILGA-Europe's work are: (1) advocating for human rights and equality for LGBTQI+ people at a transnational level within Europe, before organizations such as the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); in particular, in relation to asylum, hate crime and hate speech, education, employment, family, freedom of assembly, association and expression, health, legal gender recognition, and bodily integrity; (2) supporting strategic litigation through European courts to advance the rights of LGBTQI+ people, usually as part of a wider advocacy campaign. The use of European courts to ensure full recognition and implementation of human rights for everyone – irrespective of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics – is one of the key working methods of ILGA-Europe to achieve full equality for LGBTQI+ people in Europe; and (3) strengthening the LGBTQI+ movement in Europe and Central Asia by providing training and support to its member organizations and other LGBTQI+ groups on advocacy, fundraising, organizational development, strategic communications, and much more.

  • OutRight Action International (formerly known as IGLHRC) is headquartered in the United States, has staff in eight countries, and works globally. OutRight was founded as a formal NGO in 1990 to respond to human rights abuses against LGBTIQ people and to urge mainstream human rights organizations to recognize abuses on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. OutRight has since grown to include staff on five continents and is focused on improving the lives of LGBTQI+ people around the world by collaborating with organizations, HRDs, and communities to document LGBTQI+ rights violations; using that data to change hearts, minds, law, and policy; and leveraging regional and international mechanisms to advocate for change at the national, regional, and international levels. It connects local activists and movements to the world’s most influential norm-setting bodies, including the United Nations, where it is the only LGBTQI+ organization with consultative status focused at UN Headquarters.

  • Synergía is a cross-regional organization registered in the Netherlands, Nigeria, and the U.S. and works across Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, focused on capacity strengthening assistance, funding, and strategic guidance to partners as a means of catalyzing their efforts to protect and promote human rights of their communities. In many regions that Synergía works in, those who advocate for the human rights of LGBTQI+ communities are often targeted on the basis of their work. Thus, supporting partners on the ground to identify and mitigate risks is of critical importance to the resilience and longevity of the movements. Synergía works with partners to develop security strategies that reduce the likelihood of these risks and provides rapid response in the event of unforeseen crises.

  • UHAI EASHRI is Africa’s first indigenous activist-led fund for sexual and gender minorities movements in Eastern Africa. UHAI provides accessible, flexible funding to Eastern Africa’s LGBTQI+ movements for civil society organizing. UHAI is invested in promoting the health, rights, and dignity of its communities. It has a history and commitment to seeding great, young ideas, sustaining support for brave, groundbreaking work, and growing community organizations to the kind of stability and structural integrity that will attract other funders and partners. UHAI contributes an intimate knowledge of movement dynamics, issues, and actors to the Dignity Consortium and has the contacts, field expertise, organizational capacity, and competence for executing strategic investments and support in Eastern Africa. UHAI will continue this work under the Dignity program through SOAR granting. Within the consortium, UHAI also offers input on supporting sexual and gender minorities in dealing with security issues and ensuring that we support work that goes into proactive security thinking and practice. This ensures that communities can actively plan for security and emergencies to ensure safety in a hostile environment.

 

What is the context in which dignity for all currently operates?

LGBTQI+ people and movements face constant and numerous risks. Despite progress on LGBTQI+ human rights in some countries, there are many places where LGBTQI+ people face severe threats to their safety and security every day. LGBTQI+ people endure extreme violence, marginalization, and abuse by state actors; by social, religious, and political groups; and by community members, including their families. They are often targeted for their identity or affiliation with LGBTQI+ communities, and for their engagement in LGBTQI+ human rights work. As a result, LGBTQI+ movement actors deal with severe risks and threats stemming from the intersection of homophobia and transphobia in culture and beliefs, which fuel stigmatization, discrimination, criminalization, and violence. The global trend of shrinking civil society space multiplies the impact of the risks that LGBTQI+ movements already face. They are often the first to be targeted, are already operating under extremely disadvantaged conditions, and often face the most severe threats. Restrictions on civil society organizations, such as limits on foreign funding or not being able to formally register, increase the difficulties for small and marginalized LGBTQI+ groups. In many cases, LGBTQI+ organizations are illegal and have to work informally and in hiding just to be able to function at the most basic levels. Despite this challenging context, LGBTQI+ movements succeed in making progress and increasing visibility. Unfortunately, these successes sometimes come with associated backlash, including severe crises. Increased attention to and resources for proactive approaches to safety and security are critical to ensure that LGBTQI+ movements and communities are prepared to mitigate vulnerabilities and better withstand these attacks.

Dignity for All operates in three contexts that overlap. Our task is to build and stabilize capacity and resources as much as possible in a consistent risk situation in order to capitalize on opportunities and/or most effectively counter a crisis.

What change does Dignity for All hope to see, and what strategies do we use for change?

Our vision for success is that:

  • LGBTQI+ movements are sustainable, in terms of their capacities and resources, with regards to safeguarding safety and security for LGBTQI+ communities, and

  • LGBTQI+ communities are safe and secure and enjoy rights and remedies in environments free from violence and discrimination.

Dignity’s strategies for change include:

 

    • Accessing donor spaces

    • Convening donors, movements, and communities

    • Engagement around safety and security in donor spaces

    • Publications about risk and response

    • Relations with human rights organizations, humanitarian organizations, and others

    • Quick linking up with (potential) allies in crisis and opportunity

    • Building links with state actors and multilaterals

    • Outreach to new allies to seize opportunities

    • Community mobilization, coordination, and outreach

    • Best practices publications for donors

    • Safety and security capacity building

    • Individual emergency granting

    • Relocation strategies pre-crisis

    • Well-being support

    • Regranting for crisis support and shelter