Dear activists and colleagues,
Here is an important opportunity to tell funders—and a broader public—about the goals, challenges, and opportunities of your movement.
All it will take is 15 minutes of your time to answer 11 questions.
The Arcus Foundation, a US-based funder, is organizing a major meeting of donors in September to discuss new plans and programs for international sexual rights and LGBT funding. They have asked Human Rights Watch to conduct an informal survey of sexual rights and LGBT activists and organizations worldwide to identify in very broad terms
Here is an important opportunity to tell funders—and a broader public—about the goals, challenges, and opportunities of your movement.
All it will take is 15 minutes of your time to answer 11 questions.
The Arcus Foundation, a US-based funder, is organizing a major meeting of donors in September to discuss new plans and programs for international sexual rights and LGBT funding. They have asked Human Rights Watch to conduct an informal survey of sexual rights and LGBT activists and organizations worldwide to identify in very broad terms
- some of the key goals for change in different regions;
- the challenges as well as future opportunities activists see for making those changes real.
Your answers will help produce a short report that will be distributed to the donor meeting—and will also be made publicly available to you, for comment and response. The idea is not to prioritize some goals or needs over others, but rather to make sure that as many visions as possible reach the donors for discussion.
Please take the time to answer the following questions! Your answers can be as detailed or as short as you like; you can tell us the question is irrelevant, or that another question is more important. What is vital is that you get us your response—so that your voice can be heard.
Please send your answers to lgbt@hrw.org by AUGUST 7, 2008. We are also available to interview you by phone about these issues if you would like to offer more detailed insights. Just let us know.
We hope you’ll take advantage of this important chance to tell major international funders what your priorities are. Take a few minutes to reply!
Thank you,
Scott Long
Director
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY USA 10118
Tel. +01 (212) 216-1297
Fax +01 (212) 216-1876
E-mail: longs@hrw.org
THE QUESTIONS
1. Please give us the name and address of yourself or your organization. This will be kept confidential (unless you tell us otherwise).
2. In a sentence or two, describe your organization’s goals or mandate: the main purposes for which it works.
3. In a sentence or two, describe the main strategies or methods your organization uses to achieve those goals.
Examples could include:
Please take the time to answer the following questions! Your answers can be as detailed or as short as you like; you can tell us the question is irrelevant, or that another question is more important. What is vital is that you get us your response—so that your voice can be heard.
Please send your answers to lgbt@hrw.org by AUGUST 7, 2008. We are also available to interview you by phone about these issues if you would like to offer more detailed insights. Just let us know.
We hope you’ll take advantage of this important chance to tell major international funders what your priorities are. Take a few minutes to reply!
Thank you,
Scott Long
Director
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY USA 10118
Tel. +01 (212) 216-1297
Fax +01 (212) 216-1876
E-mail: longs@hrw.org
THE QUESTIONS
1. Please give us the name and address of yourself or your organization. This will be kept confidential (unless you tell us otherwise).
2. In a sentence or two, describe your organization’s goals or mandate: the main purposes for which it works.
3. In a sentence or two, describe the main strategies or methods your organization uses to achieve those goals.
Examples could include:
- providing counseling;
- organizing community social events;
- political advocacy/lobbying;
- research and documentation;
- job training.
4. Is your work mainly at the local, national, or international level, or a combination of these?
5. What are the most widespread or important human rights violations or inequalities you or your organization encounter in your work?
6. As you look at the political situation around you, in your country or your region, what do you see as the most important priorities for changing or introducing laws or policies? That is: based on the problems you encounter, what do you think should be the next major goal?
Examples could include
5. What are the most widespread or important human rights violations or inequalities you or your organization encounter in your work?
6. As you look at the political situation around you, in your country or your region, what do you see as the most important priorities for changing or introducing laws or policies? That is: based on the problems you encounter, what do you think should be the next major goal?
Examples could include
- getting rid of sodomy laws or dress code laws;
- introducing anti-discrimination legislation;
- ensuring everyone can get an ID card in the gender they live in;
- marriage or relationship recognition or adoption;
- asylum and immigration;
- discrimination in health services, or medical abuses;
- rights to education;
- ensuring access to reproductive technologies.
These are only examples. If you list more than one, try to give them a ranking (1 = most important)
7. What are the biggest challenges to your work, and to legal or political change? These can obviously include internal challenges for your organization or movement, such as lack of money or people. But think too about external challenges in the society or region—now, or ones you can see in the near future.
Examples could include:
7. What are the biggest challenges to your work, and to legal or political change? These can obviously include internal challenges for your organization or movement, such as lack of money or people. But think too about external challenges in the society or region—now, or ones you can see in the near future.
Examples could include:
- Religious fundamentalism;
- Patriarchal attitudes;
- A new and unfriendly government;
- Traditions of police power and impunity;
- and many others.
8. Not everything that needs to change can be reduced just to a matter of law or policy. What are some of the important targets for activism in your country or region that do not fall simply into law and policy fields, and how can you imagine addressing them?
Examples could include:
Examples could include:
- Violence within families;
- Loneliness and isolation among LGBT people;
- Pervasive economic disempowerment;
- and many others.
9. When you look at the political and social situation in the foreseeable future, what are the opportunities that you think your movement can take advantage of?
Examples could include:
Examples could include:
- A change of government;
- A shift in popular attitudes;
- A planned revision of the laws;
- Changes in the health care system;
- New international alliances or international aid;
- New opportunities for training the police;
- and many others.
10. What would you or your organization need to take full advantage of those opportunities?
11. Dream for a moment: name one success you would like to see your organization or movement achieve in the next five years. What would you need to achieve it?
11. Dream for a moment: name one success you would like to see your organization or movement achieve in the next five years. What would you need to achieve it?
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