Our Work
Country Overviews
At Outright International, our mission is to ensure human rights for LGBTIQ people everywhere through advocacy, support and research.
Browse below to learn more about our work all over the globe
Sub-Saharan Africa
Outright supports LGBTIQ organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa and works with mainstream human rights organizations to respect human rights and influence positive changes in laws, policies, attitudes, and beliefs that cause discrimination against LGBTIQ people on the continent.
Americas
Human rights protections for LGBTIQ people have undergone fundamental and positive transformations across the Americas in recent years—with the legalization of same-sex marriage in several countries in South America, the inclusion of sexual orientation and/or gender identity as protected categories in some domestic anti-discrimination laws throughout the region, and the repeal of colonial-era sodomy laws in the Caribbean. These hard-won advances have also produced backlash and political pressures from anti-gender and anti-rights groups, contributing to violence and discrimination.
Our work in the Americas spans both the Caribbean and Latin America, where we partner with civil society organizations and activists to advance the human rights of LGBTIQ people. In the Caribbean, significant progress has been made in dismantling discriminatory laws and policies. Since 2016, courts in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Dominica have overturned colonial “buggery” laws. Legal challenges are ongoing in St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Jamaica, as well as before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Outright continues to support Caribbean civil society efforts, including initiatives to address gender-based violence by challenging entrenched gender norms and training service providers to deliver LGBTIQ-inclusive services.
In Latin America, Outright engages through strategic litigation and partnerships with national organizations. We have submitted amicus briefs before national courts and the Inter-American human rights system, and we provide support, particularly to groups working to eradicate conversion practices and promote inclusive legal frameworks.
Asia
In Asia, we work in partnership with national and local LGBTIQ groups to stop gender-based violence and discrimination against LGBTIQ people in general and against more marginalized groups within the broader LGBTIQ spectrum. We promote acceptance of LGBTIQ people in all their sexual and gender diversity.
Europe and Central Asia
Outright International partners with activists to fight for an end to human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics in Europe, where most of our work involves emergency responses to harassment, discrimination, violence, and, most recently, Russia’s brutal and expanded invasion of Ukraine.
South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA)
The situation of LGBTIQ individuals in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region remains deeply complex and challenging. Despite growing global awareness and advocacy for LGBTIQ people’s rights, many countries in the SWANA region enforce laws and social norms that criminalize or stigmatize non-cisheteronormative identities. Cultural, religious, and political factors contribute to a climate where LGBTIQ people often face legal persecution, social exclusion, and violence. These overviews seek to shed light on the legal frameworks, societal attitudes, and lived experiences of LGBTIQ individuals across the region, highlighting both the obstacles they encounter and the efforts being made by activists and communities to advocate for inclusion, safety, and equal rights.
Pacific
Our work in the Pacific aims to increase the visibility of activists, respond to human rights emergencies, and actively bridge local, regional, and international activism to achieve equality and justice.
United Nations
Outright International holds a consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The United Nations (UN) is the birthplace of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the organization from which fundamental international human rights law originates. The UN sets global human rights standards, and facilitates processes for ensuring they are upheld by Member States.
Outright engages in UN dialogues, debates, special sessions and annual events at the UN-NY Headquarters, including with the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. Outright works to ensure that UN institutions recognize, affirm and protect human rights for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression and sex characteristics.
Our status as a United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) organization gives us year-round access to advocate for the human rights of LGBTIQ people directly with representatives of Member States and UN agencies at the UN Headquarters in New York. Outright brings LGBTIQ advocates and civil society leaders from around the world to engage with UN processes as briefers on country and regional discussions and as experts on thematic issues relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, physical characteristics and expression.
Outright is a co-founder and Secretariat of the UN LGBTI Core Group, an informal group of 43 Member States, the delegation of the EU, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and Outright International. Together, we collaborate to mainstream LGBTIQ human rights at the UN headquarters in New York.
Help us make an impact
Outright International works together for better LGBTIQ lives. We work with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTIQ human rights movement, document and amplify human rights violations, and advocate for inclusion and equality.
