MULTILATERAL
ADVOCACY
United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS spaces are where laws are shaped, norms are set, and the frameworks that govern LGBTQI+ lives are written or erased. We refuse to treat access to them as neutral.
MULTILATERAL ADVOCACY
Multilateral spaces like the United Nations, the African Union, and ECOWAS are where laws get shaped, norms get set, and the international frameworks that govern the lives of LGBTQI+ people get written or erased. These rooms matter. Which is exactly why we refuse to treat access to them as neutral.
CHEVS engages with multilateral and transnational advocacy spaces not as a performance of legitimacy, but as an extension of the movements we are rooted in. We go to these spaces along with the voices and demands of frontline activists — people who are rarely in the room, often because the room was not designed for them.
HOW WE ENGAGE
Our multilateral advocacy operates at three levels simultaneously.
WHY DO WE KEEP
SHOWING UP?
Showing up in multilateral spaces is not simple or straightforward for the communities we work with. Visa denials, racialised border enforcement, and the prohibitive cost of international travel mean that many of the most critical voices in our movements are systematically filtered out of the rooms where decisions are made. The people most affected by the policies being debated are the least likely to be present when they are debated.
We take that contradiction seriously. Our multilateral advocacy includes challenging the terms of participation itself — pushing convening institutions to design spaces that genuinely center those most at risk, not just those with the right passport. We document the barriers. We name them publicly. We insist they are not incidental — they are political.
WHAT THIS WORK
LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
CHEVS participates in and prepares community stakeholders for major international advocacy moments. We produce briefings, shadow reports, and policy submissions that translate community realities into the language institutions respond to.
We build coalitions with allied organizations across the continent to amplify collective demands. And we bring back what we learn — connecting the global to the grassroots, ensuring that international processes inform and are informed by local organizing.
Our multilateral work is rooted in accountability to movements, not in visibility for its own sake.
OUR MULTILATERAL ADVOCACY
NEWS AND RESOURCES
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