OR HOW "ALTERNATIVE" ALTERNATIVE REPORTS ARE

28 SEPTEMBER 7 PM

art space "taiga", dvortsovaya naberezhnaya 20

Russian LGBT rights defending movement, although relatively young in the world-wide context, had already contributed to promotion of internationally recognized human rights of LGBT people.

One of the most important arenas whereon the battle for rights unfolds is the so called universal human rights system created by UN. This is what the workshop held on September 28 will be devoted to.

Very often UN and things happening in its work frame are perceived as something very distant, complex and abstract. Something what high ranked politicians discussing global issues are involved in. In reality however UN system is much more open – both for individuals and groups and civil society organizations. To a large extent we are separated from New York and Geneva where traditionally UN committees are meeting by 3 steps only. These 3 steps are: report preparation, presentation, and use of recommendations addressed to the state. How to prepare alternative reports on LGBT rights to the UN, what kind of contribution to the report preparation process may be made by each representative of the LGBT community, what benefits the presentation brings and how recommendations formulated for Russia may be used, what has been achieved by Russian civil rights defenders and what still lies ahead to be achieved – these are the topics for discussion at the upcoming workshop.

THREE STEPS TO UNITED NATIONS OR HOW “ALTERNATIVE” ALTERNATIVE REPORTS ARE

PRESENTER: Kseniya Krichenko, lawyer at the “Coming out” organization, member of the Russian LGBT-network Council, author of the several reports on LGBT situation in Russia for varous UN and Council of Europe committees