On October 21st and 22nd, EL*C was in Geneva for the UNECE Regional Review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 30 years after the Beijing Conference, where an herstorical “lesbian tent” brought lesbian rights to the international table.  

Every five years, UN Women leads a review of the declaration to monitor whether states are implementing it and to identify gaps in policy. We coordinated with other CSOs and organized an official side event on the main struggles in the region, particularly in the face of anti-gender agendas. Lesbians were at the conference in 1995, and lesbians are still here, monitoring the progress of our rights and ensuring that no one is left behind. 

Below is the statement we delivered on behalf of the Holding the Line Coalition, a group of feminist NGOs pushing back against the backlash on gender equality: