Today UNIBAM completed the final day of its conference on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Representatives from the Heartland Alliance in Washington DC presented on the importance of community involvement in ensuring that the government enforces the human rights of all citizens - including the LGBT demographic. Two of the Heartland Alliance's directors, Fanny Gomez-Lugo and Stefano Fabeni told us about the role that both the government and the people play in ensuring that everyone's rights are protected.
Fanny Gomez-Lugo, Senior Director
"So basically we're invited by UNIBAM to take part in the workshop regarding human rights and sexual orientation identity. So the first day was sort of like a domestic review of human rights and then the second day, today, I took part in a presentation regarding the inter-american commission of human rights, the LGBT that was created there to sort of overview the protection of human rights is the sexual orientation identity. What are some of the means of engagement for some of the society's organizations with a commission and the rapportership either through public hearings where the state is also sitting and to discuss human rights in that regard or through the petition case which could actually end in a case before the court. Also I spoke briefly about the two conventions that have been adopted by the OAS General Assembly; one on discrimination and all forms of intolerance and another one on the rights of older people and how they are the first treaties in the world to include sexual orientation gender identity as a prohibited form of discrimination."
Stefano Fabeni, Executive Director
"One of the reasons why we are here being that Caleb Orosco and UNIBAM have been key in the 10 years of advocacy work that we've been doing within the Organization of American States. Part of the workshop was sort of to look at what has been the work over the past 10 years. This speaks to the importance of civil society to be in those places. We've been talking about the fact that English speaking Caribbean's states, Belize being one of them, they are not as present when it comes to the Organization of American States and most of the states have not signed and ratified the conventions, the inter-american instruments of protection of human rights. Therefore, in order to be visible, to hold the states accountable, it's important that civil society is present there. Back at home it reminds and challenges governments to ensure that they are a part of that process. That's really the most important thing. The question of advocacy that is to start at home, it continues in regional spaces with the general assembly of Organization of the American States whether it's at the inter-american commission of human rights, but the question is to ensure that the civil society is the watchdog of states when it comes to promotion, protection and implementation of human rights."
Fabeni and Lugo also told us that there are already international standards for including and representing members of the LGBTQ community human rights legislature.
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