ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
On Human Rights Day last year (December 10, 2015), LGBTIQ organizations from all over the world met up at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to communicate regional concerns and issues regarding human rights and policies. This event, organized by Outright Action International, aims to give the experiences of LGBTIQ persons from different regions their much-needed visibility in the global front.
Each representative were given two minutes to deliver a statement about their issues and recommendations. ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC) was sent to represent the ASEAN region. Ryan Silverio, the Regional Coordinator of ASC, presented the statement to Ambassador Samantha Power, the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Transgender people in Vietnam will be recognized under the law and have all relevant rights to their new gender, according to the Amended Civil Code passed by lawmakers on Tuesday.
Earlier on the same day, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee submitted a report on the issue, saying that gender reassignment should be allowed to "meet the demand of a group of citizens.”
Source: thanhniennews.com
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association Asia (ILGA Asia) conference held recently in Taipei, Taiwan served as a space for activists to raise critical issues affecting the movement. Several presentations and workshops emphasized that LGBTIQ issues have to be addressed in a broader context of poverty, disability, migration, democratization, disasters and armed conflicts.
“We cannot talk about LGBTIQ rights in isolation. Given the complex lived experiences of LGBTIQ persons in Asia, we need to take intersectionality seriously,” according to Ryan Silverio, Regional Coordinator of ASEAN SOGIE Caucus.
Intersectionality was a running theme throughout the ILGA Asia conference.
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC) was invited to be part of Pyi Gyi Khin’s study visit to the Philippines. We were able to share our experiences in global and regional advocacy and in building a movement of LBTIQ activists.
Ging Cristobal, ASC core member, discussed entry points for advocacy within the United Nations. She stressed that engaging the human rights mechanism requires systematic monitoring and documentation of human rights violations.
(ASC shares the full text of the statement of Myanmar LGBT Rights Network in response to the homophobic and transphobic actions of government officials from Mandalay Region. You may also download the statement here.)
The ASEAN SOGIE Caucus and The International Committee of Jurists held an event entitled “Positioning the Rainbow within ASEAN” A Public Lecture on ASEAN, Activism and LGBTIQ Rights, on August 12, 2015 at La Breza Hotel in Quezon City, Philippines. The speakers for the lecture were Ms. Emerlynne Gil, the Senior International Legal Adviser of the ICJ in Southeast Asia and Professor Douglas Sanders, a retired law professor from the University of British Columbia and one of the founders of the first LGBT organizations in Canada.
The panel aimed to address the following objectives: To describe the human rights situation of LGBTIQs within ASEAN; To critically reflect on the dynamic political, social and economic contexts that influence and affect the status of LGBTIQ activism in the region; and To identify opportunities and spaces for regional-level activism.
Emerlynne Gil provided a landscape of democracy within ASEAN and the state of civil society in the region. Emerlynne has put the ASEAN countries into three categories. The first category includes countries with widespread democracy and political pluralism; the second category are countries with semi-authoritarian governments but with some democracy and political pluralism; and the third category are countries that are clearly authoritarian and no political pluralism at all.
AUGUST 12 ― There is something going on at the Federal Court in Putrajaya this Thursday, August 13 which may not register much on the minds of many Malaysians, especially with the shenanigans going on in that town at the moment. However, the decision in a case being heard by the highest court in the land could have wide-ranging consequences for all Malaysians.
Last November, the Court of Appeal granted an appeal against a Seremban High Court judgement which dismissed a judicial review application to challenge the constitutionality of a Syariah law. Section 66 of the Shariah Criminal (Negeri Sembilan) Enactment 1992 was being used to persecute and prosecute those who are Muslim and transgender by criminalising any man who dresses or poses as a woman.
The ASEAN SOGIE Caucus recently organized a meeting titled “SOGIE Intersections and Rainbow Coalition Work: a Roundtable Discussion on Locating the Intersections of LGBTIQ Issues”. The activity was convened to examine how intersectionality may be applied as a lens to both examine multiple forms of discrimination and as an approach to strengthen the advocacy of LGBTIQ movements.
Prof. Tesa De Vela, Chairperson of Miriam College Department of International Studies and a long-time feminist activist, helped unpack the concept of intersectionality as an analytical tool. Prof. De Vela noted that applying intersectionality into LGBTIQ activism opens the doors for “sincere affinity” towards the advocacies of other marginalized groups. In applying intersectionality, Prof. De Vela suggested the need to build meaningful alliances with different social movements.
Several speakers examined the intersections between SOGIE, and other identities and contexts, such as child rights, older persons, migration, ethnicity, disability and poverty.
Klarise Estorninos of the Ateneo Human Rights Center suggested that the non-discrimination and “best interest of the child” principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child because may potentially be used to protect actual or perceived to be LGBTIQ children from abuse.
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
Legally Registered in the Philippines as Southeast Asia Sexual Orientation,
Gender Identity and Expression Caucus (ASC), Inc. The organization is in
Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC since 2021.
Quezon City, Philippines
Email: communications@aseansogiecaucus.org
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