Summary:
Human Rights Council: HRC 59 upcoming side events
The 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council is unfolding, and civil society organisations are working together to change awareness on issues that LGBTI, feminist, sexual reproductive health rights, and sex workers’ movements have long campaigned for.
We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming HRC 59 events!
Date: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Time: 1pm – 2pm CEST
Venue: Room XXV, Palais des Nations, Geneva. Register now
In partnership with Rainbow Railroad, and with the support of the Group of Friends of the IE SOGI, ILGA World is hosting a fireside chat with the Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Graeme Reid. The Indipendent Expert will share his new report on LGBT and gender-diverse persons in forced displacement.
Please note this is a limited capacity event and registration is reserved on a first-registered-first-served basis for individuals who can attend in person.
Date: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Time: 2pm – 3pm CEST
Venue: Room XXV, Palais des Nations, Geneva
This event is organised by Women Deliver, and co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN in Geneva, AWID; ILGA World, IPPF, NSWP, and Sexual Rights Initiative.
The global human rights framework is under attack. At the same time, anti-rights actors and the double standards imposed by Global North countries are fuelling a crisis of multilateralism.
Despite this, feminist and SOGIESC movements have continued to successfully uphold the rights and dignity of all women, girls, and gender non-conforming people.
It is us up to us, collectively, to reimagine the feminist future that will benefit and sustain us all – and the new systems and processes we need to create it. We need a bold, innovative playbook that unites us across sectors, movements, and geographies.
Join this event to advance a strategic conversation amongst participants on what is needed to advance a feminist, rights-affirming vision of gender equality in the context of rising fascism, and hear examples of resistance as good practices that we must champion, amplify, and learn from.
Date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Time: 1pm – 2pm CEST
Venue: Room XXV, Palais des Nations, Geneva
The event is hosted by Sexual Rights Initiative and partners, and co-sponsored by partner organisations — including ILGA World.
This side event will address the harms caused by conflating sex work with trafficking, deriving from a paternalistic approach to sex work and denying sex workers their right to bodily autonomy and capacity to consent. The side event will emphasise the urgent need to recognise sex work as work – a human rights and practical imperative to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination.
Date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Time: 3pm – 4pm CEST
Venue: Palais des Nations, Geneva
Format: hybrid. Register now
The event is held in partnership with Trans Advocacy Week.
The Count Me In! consortium and allies, including ILGA World, are hosting a side event to highlight the importance of gender-based approaches to addressing violence and discrimination against women and girls. This is crucial to also advance intersectional frameworks that recognise how gender-based violence is shaped by multiple, overlapping systems of power — instead of biology alone.
Other upcoming events
Over the coming weeks, ILGA World will organise and support other events, too!
You can find all the information you need below.
Date: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Time: 15:00-16:30 CEST
Location: online, register now
Language: English; Spanish
Accessibility: automated live captioning in English
Join global civil society actors, donor representatives, and grassroots leaders to learn more about the effect of foreign aid cuts on LGBTI organisations and communities, and explore solutions and strategies to mitigate the crisis. Read more about this event
Date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Time: 15:00-16:30 CEST
Location: online, register now
The event is held on the occasion of OMCT’s Global Week Against Torture
Across the globe, LGBTIQ+ individuals and the courageous human rights defenders who advocate for their right to exist face escalating threats, including criminalisation in over 60 countries, state-sponsored and societal violence, smear campaigns that dehumanise them, and severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression.
This critical online panel, featuring defenders from Africa and MENA, aims to highlight these lived realities and challenges, fostering international solidarity and exploring strategies to bolster their protection, visibility, and resilience in the face of immense personal risk.
Date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Time: 16:00 CEST
Location: online, register now
Event offered through the Carr-Ryan Center’s Global LGBTQI+ Changemakers Network
Join us for a timely and focused webinar that breaks down the technical aspects of the renewal process, the roles played by various UN member states, and what’s at stake in the weeks ahead. With expert analysis from advocates and others with deep understanding of the process, this session aims to demystify the process and spotlight how civil society can respond.
Date: Tuesday 1 July 2025
Time: 15:00 – 17:00 CEST
Location: online, register now
Event on the occasion of the closing of Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)’s Fund our Futures campaign. Organised by GPP, sponsored by Foundation for a Just Society, and supported by partner organisations — including ILGA World
Amid anti-rights backlash and dramatic shifts in the philanthropic and development assistance landscapes, the Fund Our Futures campaign launched in November 2024 with the goal to raise $150 million in new pledged funding for LGBTI movements by June 2025.
Join us in marking the campaign’s close and the 40 (and counting!) grantmakers that met this moment by making new funding commitments to global LGBTI rights.