By Aarushi Gupta

On March 6, the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), in partnership with SPECTRUM, organized an event exploring grassroots transgender rights advocacy movements around the world at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). The event was co-sponsored by the Latin American Students Association (LASA) and the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS).

The event, titled “Transgender Rights Around the World,” stood out for featuring a panel of grassroots transgender rights activists and a moderator from non-Western contexts. The panelists and moderator came to Columbia University as a part of the prestigious Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP).

The panel consisted of Antonia Moreira, the Head of Strategy of Ateliê TRANSmoras Association, a transgender-led not-for-profit organization that aims to promote the inclusion of trans people in Brazil via fashion; Jade Jacobs, an LGBTQ activist from South Africa and Co-Director and Knowledge and Research Manager of Iranti, a media-advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening African LGBTQ rights movements by documenting human rights abuses, and an anonymous activist and illustrator from Ethiopia who has been managing Negn, a media advocacy initiative devoted to sharing the complex stories of LGBTQ Ethiopians using storytelling, multimedia media production, art and advocacy.

The discussion was moderated by Julienne Mugaruka Byenda, who works as an Advocacy Offer at La Colombe ASBL, an organization that promotes a safe environment in which LGBTQ people, especially trans women, can safely and freely live and rebuild their lives with dignity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The panelists shared the current transgender rights situations in their respective countries, their advocacy work and the challenges that they have faced. They pointed out how tribes with diverse interpretations of sexualities and genders are under violent persecution from those that only believe in the existence of two genders and sexualities.

The panelists also shed light on increasing violence against trans communities worldwide, especially transgender women, and how it is essential that advocacy initiatives center on the mental health and rehabilitation of trans youth.

HRWG reached out to the moderator, Julienne, for a comment. Julienne expressed, “It was a real pleasure for me to share my experience as a Trans activist working in an environment as hostile as my country. It is important that students are aware of the reality on the ground. This is an important aspect in building the thriving LGBTQIA+ movement.”

Aarushi Gupta (MIA ‘24) is a menstrual health and reproductive rights activist studying Human Rights Policy who successfully campaigned for free period products in all washrooms at SIPA.