International Diplomacy

Around the world, LGBTI communities continue to face criminalisation, violence, and discrimination. To combat this, States should work together to encourage progress through information and best practice sharing, engagement with civil society, and private and public support for progress on LGBTI rights.
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The ERC founding principles outline the importance of diplomacy efforts. In particular, they highlight the responsibility to strengthen cooperation, coordination, and communication in advancing LGBTI human rights, sharing information between States, and building constructive dialogue with States and relevant stakeholders around LGBTI rights and inclusive development.
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In 2018 the International Diplomacy group developed a diplomacy and advocacy toolkit for promoting LGBTI human rights internationally. The toolkit outlines key actions to be taken on international diplomacy in the ERC mechanism.

These are:

• Information sharing – gathering key information with local civil society organizations, agencies, host-country governments, and other interlocutors, and information sharing among ERC members.
• Civil society engagement – building relationships, supporting capacity-building, and supporting at-risk communities.
• Government engagement – contacts with local government, private demarches, expressions of support, and ministerial demarches.
• Public responses – local statements from missions, individual statements from Member States, sub-group statements, and full ERC statements.