Sunday, March 31, 2013

Interview with Renato Sabbadini, Co-Secretary-General of ILGA World


(filed by Ng Yi-Sheng)


YS: Thanks for coming to this conference. I was quite impressed that both Co-Secretaries-General of ILGA World were able to make it.

RS: At every ILGA regional meeting there should be at least one, if not both Co-Secretaries-Generals present. Asia is such a big region, and after the experience of Surabaya, we wanted to show some commitment to ILGA. But Gloria had to leave yesterday [Saturday] to go to a regional meeting in Brazil for Latin America.

YS: What’s your view of this year’s ILGA Asia Conference?

RS: Very good. The participation, the number of participants went beyond all hopes of the beginning, so this in itself is a sign of extremely strong desire for member organisations in Asia to build a strong region, to have a strong regional structure, to participate in this process, and to build capacity. I was struck by the very young age of many activists, and by their energy. So I’m very confident that ILGA Asia is on the right track of becoming in the reasonably near future, one of the strongest regions of ILGA.

YS: What’s been happening in the organisation since the ILGA World Conference in December 2012?

RS: For one, we hired a new person [Nicolette Du Plessis, South Africa] who will start work in Geneva from May 1, and that person is the new UN Program Manager for ILGA.

We felt that since ILGA recovered its consultative status with the ECOSOC Council of the UN, that having now this status we have a greater responsibility in working at the UN in facilitating activists of member organisations – for instance, travelling to Geneva, to speak in first person when there are hearings of the so-called Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

That is a process at the United Nations Human Rights Council whereby a country every four years undergoes a review of its respect of the human rights. And within that context, every organization can submit a report to a human rights council, also considering LGBTI rights, to the Human Rights Council. So when the country goes there, the council asks why did you this and not this. To facilitate that process, we have a new person.


But in general, as there are important things happening at the UN concerning us, as the approval last year of a resolution of a human rights resolution based on persecution of people based on SOGI. And we are part of that process. We’ve been providing the office of the Human Rights Commissioner with data on legislation persecuting people in various countries in the world. So as our engagement in the UN is increasing, we thought it fit to hire a special person. 


We are also looking for a new Executive Director. Our current Executive Director, Sebastian Rocca, who’s done a fabulous job over the past three years, he’s going to leave when we find a new one because he wants to begin his own research project. We are leaving on very good terms. The current director will be part of the process selecting for a new director. So we published a call for applications, which you can find on our website. It started on Mar 22 and will close on April 22. If you know of people who may be interested, fill in the application forms and send it to us. We hope to have a new director in place by the end of July or August.

And as I said also in the plenary, the task of this person is basically to work in these three directions, which are central to the development and strengthened of ILGA and its members.

The first is membership and regions. ILGA has now more than 1000 member organisations. It’s simply becoming impossible to interact in an effective manner with each member only from the grassroots. We need to have stronger regions and regional structures so that these regional structures can take care of their own members in a more effective way.

So we want in the next couple of years, three years maximum, to make sure every region, particular of the global South, meaning Latin America, meaning Asia, meaning Africa, that these regions have their own regional offices. That they are in a position of having funds of having a conference every two years and the boards are in a position to meet on a regular basis. Because if they cannot meet on a regular basis that they cannot work properly.

The second is strengthening the international lobby with the UN – and this we did with the new person – and also strengthening our annual report that we publish every May, called State-Sponsored Homophobia, which until now reports on the countries which have legislation discriminating against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. We want now to expand the report to include things not covered in the reports, including violent attacks against LGBTI people. But this needs an expansion on the research work. So it will be very likely in the next year there will be a new staff position for a researcher on these maters, who will work in close contact with these regions.

Third direction: communication. It is important that we keep on improving our website and the internal system of communication to make sure we get feedback from all our members on the various projects ILGA is developing. But also we need to improve our capacity for reaching the general public and governmental agencies in general, to increase the credibility and reliability of ILGA as the main source of information at a global level on LGBT related issues.

YS: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?

RS: I could say, as a final word, Asia as we know is the biggest region in terms of surface population. It’s the most diverse region – you have so many ethnicities, so many different religions – that certainly the task ahead of the ILGA Asia region and the ILGA Asia Board is extremely challenging.

But on the other hand this task is very stimulating. If, as I’m sure they will, ILGA Asia (and the ILGA Asia region on its own) find the solution and the ways to combine this diversity, to adapt the fight for equality in every part of the region, according to the different style of the sub-region – then this will be a great lesson for the rest of the world in learning how to live together in diversity, how to work together by combining different backgrounds and different personal and cultural histories. And I think this is the most important lesson ILGA Asia can teach the rest of world, both in the North and in the South.

(The interview officially ended here, but then we started talking about the nature of ILGA conferences)

RS: If you don’t have a conference every two years, people don’t get the sense of belonging to the same region. An example: you have a difficulty in your city, in your country, and you launch an appeal to a member organization in your region. Of course they will support you online, they will submit a registration – but they will not feel as personally if they have not met you personally, if they don’t see a face behind that call for help.

With the new social media it’s so easy to launch an appeal, to call for signatures. And people, if it’s just a clique, people do it. But when you need real help, when you need for instance, you ask whether in your region someone has faced a similar problem as you, or someone has a resource that someone could tap into, if the person asking for help is just a name with a hashtag or a name and a Facebook page, you can say I’ll answer that later, or I don’t have the time right now.

But if it’s the name of a person with whom you’ve had an exchange with n a  workshop, in a plenary, then the degree of personal responsibility you feel is much higher. And you get that act together in that moment, and you find in that moment ways of helping out another organisation.

That’s why a conference is so important: it’s the most important part of the ILGA Life of the region. Because people see each other and they feel more committed to each other.

See you in Taipei!

(filed by Ng Yi-Sheng)



I nearly forgot to make this announcement: we’ve chosen our city! Ashley even showed some videos to celebrate the success of his pitch! 




We’ve even got a month hammered down: we want the event to coincide with coincide with Taipei Pride, so it’ll be in October 2015. Mark your calendars, gentlepersons!

Sahran also had a few words to share:

Sahran: I asked the Taiwan delegation if they get elected, if they could organize a mass wedding, which I’m sure they will because of they’re so big on marriage rights. I want to be bridesmaid for someone’s wedding!

2013 ILGA Asia Conference Has Succeeded

Photo Gallery;

"The wound from the last Surabaya 2010 unfolded conference is healed by the successful of 2013 conference." Co-Secretaries General, ILGA,
Renato Sabbadini on his closing remarks: 
The above remarks is very important for all of us from Indonesia and especially who were in Surabaya three years ago. The successful of 2013 conference in Bangkok have proved that there is a place for the rising phoenix. Congratulation every body! 

Sahran Abeysundara was looked tired, but yet he care to thank every one. 

"See you in Taipeh, Taiwan on the 6th ILGA Asia Conference." Said Poedjiati Tan.
Preparing for the party at Telephone Pub and will keep posting on this blog.

Posted by Ernest J.K. Wen

Results!!!... and surprises.

(filed by Ng Yi-Sheng)

Results are in! This is your new ILGA Board!!!


But wait! There's been new developments! One former board member pointed out that the board officially should include 8 members, and we've only elected 7! And although the initial proposal was to elect another of the transgender candidates to the board, it was noticed that the West Asian candidate had finally wandered in!

(Way too many exclamation marks. I'll try to cut down.)

So after a stump speech from [Candidate] (which was actually very incoherent, since she was so surprised at the events), we held voting for her, and we have an OFFICIAL new board.


From left to right: Poedjiati Tan aka Poedji (Indonesia, SEA female)
, King Oey (Indonesia, SEA non-female), [Candidate] (W. Asia female), Kaona Saowakun aka Toto (Thailand, Trans), Dandan Zhang aka Dana (China, E. Asia female)

, Stefan Joachim (Sri Lanka, S. Asia non-female), Otgonbaatar T. aka Otto (Mongolia, E. Asia non-female), Yoghita Singh (India, S. Asia female).

But that's not all. We held elections for the female and non-female representatives for the ILGA World board. Dandan, Yoghita and Poedji stood for the female position; King and Toto stood for the non-female position.

And the results: our female representative for the ILGA World Board is Dana (China), with Poedji (Indonesia) as the reserve.

Our male representative is Toto (Thailand), with King (Indonesia) as the reserve. 

This may be the first time a transman is on the ILGA World board. A groundbreaking election indeed!


UPDATE: The name and nationality of the West Asian female representative have been removed for security reasons.

Host City Plugs!

(filed by Ng Yi-Sheng)

TAIPEI

Ashley had a slideshow and a video. His group, Hotline, has "many many experiences" in hosting public events that are over 1000 people. They hold an annual funding charity party, every year.

His city has the biggest LGBT Pride in Asia, he reminded us – and it's not a Pride Parade, because it's more than a parade: it's part of a social movement - a 70,000 bare-naked party of a social movement! "I would like you to join us so you can all come to this Pride," he said.

The slideshow - don't know if I can get pics - included a trio of boys bringing a rainbow flag all over Taiwan, to all its temples and Buddhas and touristic landmarks.

Ashley: We have also very delicious street food. (pointing) That is also one of our delicious street foods –Taiwanese boys!

Jennifer: And girls! And we have very good lesbian parties. And we have very good connection with universities.

Yes, there are drawbacks: travelling will be expensive for South Asians, but budget flights are available. Most people will need visas, but they've been assured that this won't be a problem as long as they can produce invitation letters. (Of course, participants from China must expect a longer processing time.)

PHNOM PENH

A lot of us know about Angkor Wat, Srun Sron said, but he's not here to talk about civilisations. He too has experience with big numbers: his group hosted the 3,000-strong ASEAN Grassroots People’s Assembly.

Hotel costs are super-cheap, he added. Also, 63% people of people are young! (Not sure whether he was talking about youth outreach or eye candy.) Good travel connections with all ASEAN countries already, except Brunei.

Oh, and Prime Minister Hun Sen's announced that the country supports the LGBT community. The Ministry of Tourism's also declared that Cambodia's a beautiful country for gay people! There are now a big gay club and fashion shows in Siem Reap!

(Nice, but what about Phnom Penh itself? I hope there's sexier stuff there than Tuol Sleng Prision.)

Candidate plugs!

(filed by Ng Yi-Sheng)

Each candidate had two minutes to promote himself/herself. Here's more or less what they said.

Yogita emphasized her work with Sangini, providing legal aid, family protection and training to LGBTs.

Stefan spoke about the “passion, strength and love” at this conference and asked us to echo his belief in the strength of Asia.

Poedji explained she was running again for the sake of continuity: “we should finish what we start.” When the board was elected in 2008 they didn’t know what they were doing: now they know how the ILGA system works and they think they’re on their way to having a permanent office.

Sophanut apologized for her bad English and reiterated the commonality of Cambodia’s problems with the region’s.

Sron talked about his work as a co-founder of Rainbow Community Kampuchea, the newness of LGBT rights when they began to celebrate IDAHO. He also honoured the “two old lesbians” who’ve joined the mostly young activists in the cause.

King again talked about the need for continuity. Also, “I’m an introvert. I’m not good at speeches. But teams need introverts.”
Dana described her work at the Chinese Lala Alliance. She admitted she’s not the greatest activist from China, but she will be able to facilitate exchange between ILGA and Chinese-speaking activists back home.

Ashley again talked about continuity, his work at Hotline, and his belief that “we can do something more together instead of just talking conference.”

Otgo noted his work founding the first LGBT Centre in Mongolia, his UN experience, and how supportive his government has become of LGBT rights.

Xiaogang told us of his work as an organizer in Beijing, and promised that he’s a good listener.

Agniva joked, “I was wondering why we are as usual the last four persons. But I am happy to be last four queens in the pageant.” She remembered how the Trans Representative had disappeared at the Surabaya conference, and how she’s glad it’s back. She hoped there’ll be a Trans Secretariat for Asia.

Joane identified herself as a transgender lesbian Christian. “Being a transgender is a gift from god. We can break the barriers between all genders.”

Gina from Trans China promised to keep on sticking up for subgroups and minorities.

Toto/KS spoke up on the issue that “transgenders are not only transwomen.” She expressed her desire to share the voices of both transwomen and transmen with ILGA, and hoped to set up an ILGA Secretariat here in Thailand.

Elections!

(filed by Ng Yi-Sheng)

We're all gathered in the Ballroom of the Palazzo Hotel. Sahran and Azusa are in front: they're overseeing the elections because they're board members (of ILGA Asia and ILGA World respectively) who won't be running for re-election.

Sahran's already announced that the constitution and strategic plan has been approved. So we'll be voting on board members and the host city for the next conference. I'll be updating this article as news comes in.

Here are the candidates!



West Asia, female:
[Candidate]  - absent, thus INVALID

South Asia, female:
Yogita Singh (India)

South Asia, non-female:
Stefan Joachim (Sri Lanka)

Southeast Asia, female:
Poedjati Tan aka Poedji (Indonesia)
Sophanut Meas (Cambodia)

Southeast Asia, non-female:
Srun Sron (Cambodia) – absent, but we’re trying to find him! Okay, he's found and accepted.
King Oey (Indonesia)

East Asia, female:
Dandan Zhang, aka Dana (China)

East Asia, non-female:
Ashley Wu (Taiwan)
Otgonbaatar T. aka Otto (Mongolia)
Xiaogang Wei (China)

Trans:
Agniva Lahiri (India)
Joane Leng (Hong Kong)
Gina Zhao (China)
Kaona Saowakun, aka Toto (Thailand)

Host Cities:
Taipei, Taiwan
Phnom Penh, Cambodia


Now everyone's giving their two-minute plugs. Ooh, now 10 minutes for voting. And now 15 minutes break while votes are counted.