The Trickle Down Model of Global Advocacy: A Belize Perpective
4th March, 2019
What I argue is while global tone setting takes place at the UN, its trickled down effect does not take place in an automatic fashion as it takes donors to support regional meetings, it takes years to build national leadership capacity, it takes years to find donors to fund regions and it takes years to inspire communities to become visible and lead in spite of their fears of violence. And so the long drawn out process of identity politics, representation and civility may actually slows down national change and transformation efforts. It is arguably a necessary evil at various levels in the movement. Still, the maverick always provide an exception to this rule. For T.C.E.N and the E.J.A, its a pilot test into how legal reform and transfer knowledge to national movements can help to improve quality of life. The fascinating thing about all this, is that global and regional work act as support mechanism to organically shape soft prep framework of political diplomacy which complements C.S.O's investment in state mechanism, using platform issues like gender and HIV to open the door for dialogue and tone shifting to reform.
What we must never forget as activists around the commonwealth, is that our work builds on the blood and violence of the voiceless to provide us the freedom to think and act at these meetings And so, we must never allow ourselves to remain silent in a room of trauma and tragedy. For we would have failed the voiceless and we would have become complicit in the promotion of pain others have felt. We must always come with recommendation and strategy not silence for the pain of others remains on our shoulders to ease. It may not stop the violence and the lost of blood on the ground, but inform us that freedom and dignity does not come without sacrifice and the urgent need to act. We completed the strategy for C.H.O.G.M and T.C.E.N on paper, but we must never forget, its our actions of sacrifice and strategy to bring relief. In the foreseeable future, we will continue to struggle to find the right ingredients for translating the global political advocacy that can be felt as tangible outcomes at the national level. The Struggle, as always continues!
E.J.A
https://kaleidoscopetrust.com/news/142
http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/181642
The Commonwealth Equality Network mobilized over 45 organizations in Mauritius to look at governance and strategy.The Network meeting is a small part of The United Belize Advocacy Movement transnational framework of advocacy which exists within a tickle down model that has been operational for over a generation in the global L.G.B.T.I movement. T.C.E.N, arguably, exists within this model and is challenged by, resources limitation, personnel, national capacity, legal barriers, governance challenges like dictatorship among member states, historical genocide, visible community leadership on the ground and national priorities that impacts the relevancy of its operational objectives and outcomes which often seem intangible and disconnected to immediate impact on the ground.
When national realities are examined, it seems movements have to overcome a myriad of challenges. With visible civil rights & defense mechanisms inadequate; underdeveloped political activism at the national level; L.G.B.T.I citizens living in oppressive states; complicity of political leaders that grant permission to commit acts of violence through their silence; tenacious, visionary and visible leaders working in oppressive environments with varying maturity levels in movements among the membership, it opens a question, how do you substantively reconcile objectives which matters on the ground?. It is this interplay of factors which make translating the work of political progress in the Commonwealth difficult. Still, not impossible, as T.C.E.N has been able to slowly shift the political tone on L.G.B.T.I issues after Malta and London C.H.O.GM. When T.C.E.N became the only accredited, L.G.B.T.I network in the commonwealth, it gained. access to meetings for the committee of the WHOLE; the Foreign Minister roundtable; got the Uk speaking of "regret" around criminalization of same sex intimacy; represented in panels and got language in Communiques, though vague, was sufficient to extend itself to L.G.B.T.I support. Still, political leaders have not issued strong public statements that reflect a commitment to legal reform. It is C.S.O's in the Commonwealth that have pushed the boundaries, with few exceptions. L.G.B.T.I organizations have open the door to progress, in Botswana, Kenya, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago with litigation work while countries like Jamaica, Barbados, St. Kitts are mobilizing the legal environment to strip nations of laws that impact same-sex intimacy. These actions offer us a small insight into the facilitation, agitation and mediation role that numerous T.C.E.N members have been playing at the national level to enrich jurisprudence to legitimize protection and defense of rights concerns. Demonstrating, that there is a generative demand approach that is driving thinking in regional and global spaces, that, the a trickle down model in advocacy is not a one way affair. Nevertheless, Belize has benefited in this space.
The trickle down effect of T.C.E.N and the broader movement can be found in Belize as a case study. While Belize has adopted 16 of 19 L.G.B.T.I recommendations through the Universal Periodic Review and announced advancement of Hate Crime/anti-discrimination legislation on March 7th, 2019 in Belize City and became the first CARICOM country to co-sponsors of an L.G.B.T.I resolution of the OAS, all of it has been driven by strong national advocacy. How T.C.E.N has helped since 2015 was in the advocating of resources and learning that the PM of the UK was committing 5.6 million pounds to support L.G.B.T.I work across the commonwealth. While direct support for Belize was not announced, our partner Human Dignity Trust was a recipient of these funds. Not wanting to wait, UniBAM introduced the Special Envoy and the Speak of the House to them at C.H.O.G.M in April 2018 London. The result of that introduction led to another meeting with a legal experts in London November, 2018 that have tapped The Equality Justice Alliance resources to support the effort at advancing Hate Crime and Anti discrimination legislation. Separately, We know that Belize helped to Launch the global mandate of Human Dignity Trust to advance decriminalisation work in 2010 in partnership with U.R.A.P the lead legal network of the Caribbean in initiating my case in Belize.We have been sharing lessons across the Caribbean region using our foundational framework with exchanges reciprocated in dialogues.
For a small country like Belize, accessing political spaces, at the O.A.S. T.C.E.N and The UN allow us to document achievements, forces national political dialogue, especially for the Universal Periodic Review of 2009, 2013 and in announcement in 2018 that Belize was working to advance anti-discrimination legislation. For an inexperience activists, making the international links to national operations might seem a fruitless effort for the impact is not immediate. The S.O.G.I Independent Expert, the Universal Periodic Review, The Organization of American States, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Equal Rights Coalition mechanism, U.N.D.P L.G.B.T.I Index all offer institutional opportunities and tools as signs of progress, but struggle to place championing mechanisms in place to quickly translate civil rights and liberation frameworks on the ground that are needed. Here in lies the challenge of going into a room of civility, identity politics and representation to respect processes when national work require tangible outcomes. In Belize we saw the launch of the Hate Crime Forum, but it took a while to get done. For as a country, we became the only commonwealth country so far to use a hybrid strategy to advance significant criminal code reform. And so connecting the global, regional and institutional dots is an important of any national or Global movement to measure tangible progress which matters on the ground.
When national realities are examined, it seems movements have to overcome a myriad of challenges. With visible civil rights & defense mechanisms inadequate; underdeveloped political activism at the national level; L.G.B.T.I citizens living in oppressive states; complicity of political leaders that grant permission to commit acts of violence through their silence; tenacious, visionary and visible leaders working in oppressive environments with varying maturity levels in movements among the membership, it opens a question, how do you substantively reconcile objectives which matters on the ground?. It is this interplay of factors which make translating the work of political progress in the Commonwealth difficult. Still, not impossible, as T.C.E.N has been able to slowly shift the political tone on L.G.B.T.I issues after Malta and London C.H.O.GM. When T.C.E.N became the only accredited, L.G.B.T.I network in the commonwealth, it gained. access to meetings for the committee of the WHOLE; the Foreign Minister roundtable; got the Uk speaking of "regret" around criminalization of same sex intimacy; represented in panels and got language in Communiques, though vague, was sufficient to extend itself to L.G.B.T.I support. Still, political leaders have not issued strong public statements that reflect a commitment to legal reform. It is C.S.O's in the Commonwealth that have pushed the boundaries, with few exceptions. L.G.B.T.I organizations have open the door to progress, in Botswana, Kenya, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago with litigation work while countries like Jamaica, Barbados, St. Kitts are mobilizing the legal environment to strip nations of laws that impact same-sex intimacy. These actions offer us a small insight into the facilitation, agitation and mediation role that numerous T.C.E.N members have been playing at the national level to enrich jurisprudence to legitimize protection and defense of rights concerns. Demonstrating, that there is a generative demand approach that is driving thinking in regional and global spaces, that, the a trickle down model in advocacy is not a one way affair. Nevertheless, Belize has benefited in this space.
The trickle down effect of T.C.E.N and the broader movement can be found in Belize as a case study. While Belize has adopted 16 of 19 L.G.B.T.I recommendations through the Universal Periodic Review and announced advancement of Hate Crime/anti-discrimination legislation on March 7th, 2019 in Belize City and became the first CARICOM country to co-sponsors of an L.G.B.T.I resolution of the OAS, all of it has been driven by strong national advocacy. How T.C.E.N has helped since 2015 was in the advocating of resources and learning that the PM of the UK was committing 5.6 million pounds to support L.G.B.T.I work across the commonwealth. While direct support for Belize was not announced, our partner Human Dignity Trust was a recipient of these funds. Not wanting to wait, UniBAM introduced the Special Envoy and the Speak of the House to them at C.H.O.G.M in April 2018 London. The result of that introduction led to another meeting with a legal experts in London November, 2018 that have tapped The Equality Justice Alliance resources to support the effort at advancing Hate Crime and Anti discrimination legislation. Separately, We know that Belize helped to Launch the global mandate of Human Dignity Trust to advance decriminalisation work in 2010 in partnership with U.R.A.P the lead legal network of the Caribbean in initiating my case in Belize.We have been sharing lessons across the Caribbean region using our foundational framework with exchanges reciprocated in dialogues.
For a small country like Belize, accessing political spaces, at the O.A.S. T.C.E.N and The UN allow us to document achievements, forces national political dialogue, especially for the Universal Periodic Review of 2009, 2013 and in announcement in 2018 that Belize was working to advance anti-discrimination legislation. For an inexperience activists, making the international links to national operations might seem a fruitless effort for the impact is not immediate. The S.O.G.I Independent Expert, the Universal Periodic Review, The Organization of American States, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Equal Rights Coalition mechanism, U.N.D.P L.G.B.T.I Index all offer institutional opportunities and tools as signs of progress, but struggle to place championing mechanisms in place to quickly translate civil rights and liberation frameworks on the ground that are needed. Here in lies the challenge of going into a room of civility, identity politics and representation to respect processes when national work require tangible outcomes. In Belize we saw the launch of the Hate Crime Forum, but it took a while to get done. For as a country, we became the only commonwealth country so far to use a hybrid strategy to advance significant criminal code reform. And so connecting the global, regional and institutional dots is an important of any national or Global movement to measure tangible progress which matters on the ground.
What I argue is while global tone setting takes place at the UN, its trickled down effect does not take place in an automatic fashion as it takes donors to support regional meetings, it takes years to build national leadership capacity, it takes years to find donors to fund regions and it takes years to inspire communities to become visible and lead in spite of their fears of violence. And so the long drawn out process of identity politics, representation and civility may actually slows down national change and transformation efforts. It is arguably a necessary evil at various levels in the movement. Still, the maverick always provide an exception to this rule. For T.C.E.N and the E.J.A, its a pilot test into how legal reform and transfer knowledge to national movements can help to improve quality of life. The fascinating thing about all this, is that global and regional work act as support mechanism to organically shape soft prep framework of political diplomacy which complements C.S.O's investment in state mechanism, using platform issues like gender and HIV to open the door for dialogue and tone shifting to reform.
What we must never forget as activists around the commonwealth, is that our work builds on the blood and violence of the voiceless to provide us the freedom to think and act at these meetings And so, we must never allow ourselves to remain silent in a room of trauma and tragedy. For we would have failed the voiceless and we would have become complicit in the promotion of pain others have felt. We must always come with recommendation and strategy not silence for the pain of others remains on our shoulders to ease. It may not stop the violence and the lost of blood on the ground, but inform us that freedom and dignity does not come without sacrifice and the urgent need to act. We completed the strategy for C.H.O.G.M and T.C.E.N on paper, but we must never forget, its our actions of sacrifice and strategy to bring relief. In the foreseeable future, we will continue to struggle to find the right ingredients for translating the global political advocacy that can be felt as tangible outcomes at the national level. The Struggle, as always continues!
E.J.A
https://kaleidoscopetrust.com/news/142
http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/181642
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