Protection International has been working in the protection of human rights defenders for some years. To date our work has focused mainly on mainstream human rights defenders working in situations of open conflicts. In conversations with various defenders working on SOGI rights it became evident that we needed to expand our focus and our work to include the specifics faced by this sector of the human rights community. Many discussions as to what kind of format this would take happened over a period of several months that involved conversations with a whole range of defenders both mainstream and “non-mainstream”. PI worked with the comments and criticisms that had been made about its previous manuals for the protection of defenders and began to look at how it would address the need to highlight the specifics. Through its work with LGBTI defenders in Nepal and confirmed by other defenders around the globe it began to identify common issues that affected our community and those that defend it. Extensive research was carried out, both primary and secondary sources consulted and PI began to adapt its framework for mainstream defenders to suit.

The manual is a result of the input of many people not only the research and training unit of PI. It is designed to be practical, it is designed to challenge, to generate a debate within organisations and perhaps more ambitiously within our umbrella as a whole. What does it mean to include more and more acronyms with out adapting our discourses and agendas and more over adapting our security measures to ensure that the umbrella really does its job of protection? The manual has been tested, it has been adapted and PI hopes that it will continue to evolve and hopefully remain relevant in its content for the LGBTI community. It can only do that if LGBTI defenders engage with this process that has begun.

Download: LGBTI_PMD_2nd_Ed_English.pdf (PDF - 1.9 Mb)

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