The Human Dignity Trust has today made public for the first time our strategic plan for the five-year period between 2024 to 2029.
The plan, Pride in Progress: A Roadmap to Ending LGBT Criminalisation, clearly lays out the strategic objectives that will frame our work for the next five years, whilst also building on our successful track record since the early days of our work in 2011.
Our work together with our outstanding local partners is more vital than ever, as we co-operate to win more victories and keep regression at bay. Our commitment to human dignity and the rule of law remains steadfast. Over the next five years, we will continue to support our partners, in both civil society and government, to eradicate the dozens of remaining laws that criminalise LGBT people, whilst also expanding our geographical reach and internal capacity so that our work can flourish and accelerate in this pivotal period.
The Trust will continue to contribute to the global effort to end LGBT criminalisation through five key pillars of work: strategic human rights litigation; legislative reform; media, communications and public education; international and regional advocacy, and operational strengthening.
I want to thank you all for this amazing job from day one. You’re my best support.
The Trust is grateful for the input of key funders and partners, who in 2023 contributed feedback on our work, with an overall emphasis on how to best deliver the goals envisaged in our five-year strategy. Our plan reflects those consultations, to ensure that we continue to support the priorities of the communities we serve.
The global fight for the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex intimacy has reached a critical juncture in 2024. We have seen immense progress since the Human Dignity Trust was founded in 2011. Then, more than 80 countries maintained these archaic criminal offences. As of July this year, this number has dropped to 63.
However, there is an alarming, parallel trend of new draconian laws being proposed and passed that aim to further demonise and outlaw LGBT people. Determined—and well-funded—opponents of human rights are intent on rolling back hard-won gains and fomenting repression and fear. For this reason, hard won victories that secure the right to love who we want and be who we want, are increasingly important, if only to provide inspiration for LGBT people living in jurisdictions where their very being remains at risk.
In everything we do, our partners remain our beacon, steering and guiding our joint resistance to injustice as they reclaim their rights and dignity. We will strive to ensure that, in five years’ time, more people are able to live and love how they choose in peace and freedom.
