2026 International Pride Awards honour five LGBTIQ+ equality champions at WorldPride Amsterdam

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 5 August 2026 – Today, the United Nationsan international organisation comprising 193 member States. It has the mission of maintaining peace and security, protecting human rights, providing humanitarian aid and ensuring economic and social development across the globe. It is a network of many different bodies and agencies, each of which has a particular role and responsibility. More Development Programme (UNDP) and ILGA World honoured five outstanding equality champions with the International Pride Awards, during a special ceremony at the WorldPride Human Rights Conference in Amsterdam.

The 2026 International Pride Awards celebrate individuals and organisations whose courage, leadership and commitment are advancing equality for lesbianadjective/noun to describe a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Women and non-binary people may use this term to describe themselves. More, gayadjective to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional
attractions are to people of the same gender. Men, women and non-binary people may use this
term to describe themselves. More, bisexualadjective used to describe a person who has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions to those of the same gender or to those of other genders. More, trans, intersexan umbrella term for the spectrum of variations of sex characteristics that naturally occur within the human species. Intersex people are born with variations of sex characteristics (such as genitals, reproductive organs, hormonal and chromosomal patterns) that are more diverse than stereotypical definitions of male or female bodies. Up to 1.7% of the global population are born with such traits; yet, because their bodies are seen as different, intersex children and adults are often stigmatised and subject to harmful practices – including in medical settings - and discriminated against. More and queerpreviously used as a derogatory term to refer to LGBT individuals in the English language – and still perceived as offensive by some - queer has been reclaimed by people who identify beyond traditional gender categories and heteronormative social norms. Although not universally accepted, it is often used as a catch-all to include many people within the larger community of people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics. More (LGBTIQ+) people around the world.

The awardees are South African deputy minister Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, the human rights organisation COC Nederland, long-standing activist Marcela Dimonty from Chile, Ugandan trans pastor Aggie Dennett Harmon, and the disability rights advocate and LGBTIQ+ ally Dr Satendra Singh from India.

Selected by an Awards Committee of experienced LGBTIQ+ campaigners, advocates and human rights leaders following nominations from across the globe, this year’s recipients demonstrate the many ways people are building progress – from strengthening grassroots movements and transforming healthcare to preserving community history and expanding political representation.

Eligible award recipients from low- and middle-income countries will each receive a US$10,000 grant to support their ongoing work and impact.

MOVEMENT BUILDING IN THE FACE OF HOSTILITY: COC Nederland (the Netherlands)

COC Nederland, founded in 1946, is the oldest existing LGBTIQ+ rights organisation in the world. COC strengthens grassroots LGBTIQ+ movements confronting criminalisation, violence, discriminationunequal or unfair treatment which can be based on a range of grounds - such as age, ethnic background, disability, and diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions or sex characteristics, amongst others. More and shrinking civic space. Working with more than 200 organisations in over 35 countries, it supports leadership development, organisational capacity, fundraising and international advocacy, while amplifying local voices in international human rights forums. Its work helps build more connected, inclusive and resilient equality movements, including organisations serving lesbian, bisexual and queer women, as well as trans and intersex people.

CELEBRATING DIVERSE LIVES: Aggie Dennett Harmon (Uganda)

A Ugandan trans pastor, advocate and community leader, Aggie Dennett Harmon supports LGBTIQ+ people – particularly trans women – facing violence, displacement and exclusion. She co-founded Talented Youth Community Fellowship Uganda, a trans women-led organisation offering psychosocial support, trauma-informed care, peer networks and empowerment programmes. She also founded the Nange Healing and Harm Reduction Center, a safe and affirming space for trans people and people who use drugs. Through her ministry, advocacy, storytelling and books, she promotes healing and belonging while helping reconcile faith and queerness.

EMERGING LEADER: Mmapaseka Steve Letsike (South Africa)

Steve Letsike is an emerging South African political leader whose public service is grounded in decades of human rights activism and social justice advocacy. After years of working through civil society to advance LGBTIQ+ equality, public health and intersectional justice, she entered Parliament in 2024 and was appointed Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. In this role, she is bringing grassroots experience into government to address discrimination, violence, unequal access to public health services and the underrepresentation of LGBTIQ+ people in political life. Her rise in national politics is expanding LGBTIQ+ representation and demonstrating how movement leadership can shape policy and institutional change.

LIFELONG PURSUIT OF EQUALITY: Marcela Dimonty (Chile)

Marcela Dimonty is a Chilean trans activist whose life and advocacy connect the repression experienced by LGBTIQ+ people during Chile’s military dictatorship with the exclusion still faced by older trans people. After taking part in the country’s first LGBT protest in 1973 and surviving detention and torture by state forces, she turned those experiences into decades of testimony, artistic expression and human rights advocacy. Her work has strengthened calls for memory, truth and reparation while inspiring new generations of activists.

EXTRAORDINARY ALLY: Dr Satendra Singh (India)

Dr Satendra Singh is an Indian disability rights advocate, medical educator and ally challenging the pathologisation of intersex and other LGBTQ+ people in healthcare and medical education. His advocacy contributed to a 2020 recommendation by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights to ban medically unnecessary intersex surgeries. He has also developed an Inclusive Language Audit Tool, advanced trans-affirmative medical competencies and supported India’s first student-led medical-school club focused on sexual orientationrefers to a person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to - and intimate and sexual relations with - individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender. More, gender identityrefers to a person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth. More and expression, and sex characteristicsa term that refers to physical features relating to sex - including genitalia and other sexual and reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, hormones, and secondary physical features emerging from puberty. More.

The 2026 International Pride Awards ceremony and broadcast were supported by Deutsche Bank and OUTtv. Deutsche Bank’s support helped organisers deliver a vibrant and meaningful ceremony, while OUTtv extended the awards’ reach through its television channels and global network, helping bring the recipients’ stories to LGBTIQ+ communities and allies worldwide.

Watch the recording of the 2026 International Pride Awards ceremony on YouTube and learn more about this year’s awardees at internationalprideawards.org.