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Our members from across the Commonwealth create pathways for national-level change where those pathways donât exist.
We challenge power structures, disrupt narratives of the past, and work with lawmakers, the public and private sectors, and other civil society movements and partners to demand accountability and create positive and enduring change for LGBTI+ people.
The creation of The Commonwealth Equality Network enabled LGBTI+ people around the Commonwealth to raise their voices against the damaging impact of British colonial laws, especially the criminalisation of same-sex relations, and to advocate for reform in Commonwealth meetings including Heads of Government meetings.
Philippa Drew Co-founder
The idea for a transnational network of LGBTI+ organisations in the Commonwealth emerges and a small working group is formed to make it happen. By the end of the year, 30 member organisations from 25 Commonwealth countries have joined.
We facilitated the âLGBTI Human Rights in the Commonwealthâ conference, to coincide with the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The event drew speakers from across the Commonwealth, and involved a range of activists, policymakers and organisations in discussion of how to improve the realisation of human rights for LGBTI+ people in Commonwealth states, and the role of Commonwealth institutions themselves.
As a result of advocacy with the Commonwealth institutions and key Commonwealth governments, a delegation of nine TCEN members from across the Commonwealth were invited to participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta that year. This was the first time the rights of LGBTI+ people were consistently raised at a CHOGM, by a group that was diverse in terms of identity, ethnicity, gender, faith and country of origin. Some highlights include:
Donnya Piggott, a young TCENÂ activist from Barbados, spoke at the formal meeting between civil society and Commonwealth Foreign Ministers, about the LGBTI+ experience in Barbados â a first in that space.
The Peopleâs Forum included two sessions focused on LGBTI+, a first in its history. At the Womenâs Forum, TCEN representatives also made the only dedicated presentation on sexual orientation and gender minority womenâs issues. These interventions facilitated direct, voluntary dialogue between TCEN activists and member state representatives who they would not normally have access to.
TCEN also successfully advanced language supportive of the rights of LGBTI+ people. The âMalta Declarationâ from the Peopleâs Forum used suggestions directly from TCENâs key advocacy positions, and positive language was included in the Peopleâs, Womenâs and Youth Forum statements as well. Significantly, the Leadersâ CommuniquĂ© contained phrasing emphasising âthe need to protect individuals from all forms of violence and discriminationâ.
We held our first membersâ meeting since 2015 and developed our first collective advocacy strategy, for the 2018 CHOGM in London.
TCEN was accredited to the Commonwealth in June. We are the first and only LGBTI+ focused group to ever receive this status which recognises commitment to the values and principles of the Commonwealth as laid out in its Charter.
We held our first regional meetings, in Malta and Johannesburg, to bring members together and help consolidate the network into a movement in support of membersâ national and global work. Attendees met with the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and former President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe, among others.
New mandate-holder of the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity Victor Madrigal-Borlozâs first stop: a meeting with TCEN about the lived experiences of LGBTI+ people across the Commonwealth and how the mandate can support the Networkâs efforts.
We met with Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland to discuss approaches to advancing LGBTI+ rights and the Commonwealth institutionsâ role in their protection and promotion â a first such meeting.
Melusi Simelane, representing a TCEN member from Eswatini, presented on the effects of criminalisation on the safety of LGBTI+ communities to the gathered high-level representatives of all Commonwealth Member States at the Committee of the Whole before the CHOGM, a first in this space.
Zeleca Julien, representing a TCEN member from Trinidad and Tobago, delivered a keynote address linking justice for LGBTI+ people to gender justice to hundreds of delegates from across the Commonwealth during the opening plenary session of the Womenâs Forum, alongside the Commonwealth Secretary-General and the UKâs Minister for Women and Equalities.
As a result of influencing by Kaleidoscope Trust on behalf of TCEN, UK Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her âdeep regretâ for the legacy of discrimination and violence that colonial-era legislation inflicts on people across the Commonwealth in front of thousands of attendees from all over the Commonwealth at the London CHOGMâs Joint Forum Plenary. The UK Government also allocated ÂŁ5.6m over two years to help create fairer and more inclusive Commonwealth societies by supporting countries seeking to reform laws that discriminate against women, girls and LGBTI+ people.
A group of TCEN members were invited to a private meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to discuss what his country can do to support LGBTI+ equality across the Commonwealth.
We held our biggest-ever Global Conference, in Mauritius, to prepare for CHOGM 2020. It marked the first time nearly all members of TCEN were able to convene at the same time since the networkâs foundation in 2013, with 51 advocates from 36 member organisations representing 35 Commonwealth countries attending, and we produced our most ambitious strategy to date.
Despite being denied observer status, a TCEN delegation was nonetheless able to fruitfully engage with a number of stakeholders at the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting in Sri Lanka, including holding a side-event chaired by the Seychelles Attorney-General.
We won the âInternational Community Trailblazerâ award at the Gay Times Honours, in recognition of the networkâs pioneering work.
Our Management Committee held a âTCEN Advocacy Weekâ in London , the network formulated a specific set of policy priorities in the area of legislation, freedoms, and access to justice. These priorities were presented at a high-level roundtable attended by High Commissioners and senior officials from Australia, Belize, Canada, Cyprus, Malta, New Zealand, Seychelles and the UK, as well as at other events.
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah spoke as part of the first-ever panel organised by the
Commonwealth Secretariat to mark the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), alongside Head of Human Rights at the Commonwealth Secretariat and UN Independent Expert on SOGIE Victor Madrigal-Borloz.
TCEN and Kaleidoscope Trust published LGBTI+ in the Commonwealth in the COVID-19 Era, a ground-breaking report documenting some of the challenges that LGBTI+ movements and communities across the Commonwealth face as a result of the pandemic.