News & Events

I'm happy to report that yesterday, UN-GLOBE had a very productive meeting with Secretary-General António Guterres in his office. I believe this was a good step forward towards changing minds and attitudes in the UN system, and by doing this establishing a lasting culture of equality and inclusion in the United Nations. I believe very much that establishing this latter is key, for it is what can turn the UN and its thousands of on-the-ground staff around the world into credible and passionate advocates for the right of everyone to have a fair chance at life, including the LGBTI.

OHCHR is co-organizing with the LGBTI Core Group a high-level event on “Ending Violence and Discrimination against LGBTI Persons” on 20 September, during the opening week of UNGA. The event, which will take place in the Trusteeship Council, 4:30-5:45pm, will feature remarks from, among others, the Prime Minister of Malta, VP of Costa Rica, Deputy PM of Belgium and ministers from Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Canada and the UK, as well as the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Additional high level speakers to be announced.

As the UN Secretariat moves from the Lotus e-mail system to the Outlook e-mail system, we have become aware that for the e-mails of trans staff, the name you identify with is being replaced by your legal name. This means that those you communicate with see the latter. This is a serious problem, and UN-GLOBE has immediately worked with the Office of Information Communications Technology (OICT) to find solutions

I wanted to announce to you that starting tomorrow, we’ll start the elections for the UN-GLOBE Board (which is made up of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treasurer). Speaking for the Board, I can say that it has been a really substantial two years. UN-GLOBE has managed to substantially advance or complete the objectives I had spoken of at the beginning of this two-year term.

UN-GLOBE has some exciting events coming up in August! First and foremost, UN-GLOBE is marching in Pride again this year in Switzerland! Also Women's night in Geneva and Family Picnic in New York

The work of UN-GLOBE is about changing minds and attitudes within the UN, on parental leave, on mobility, on peoples of diverse sexual or gender identities, or expressions… And I can say that on this front, we have managed to see concrete progress.

UN-GLOBE has partnered with the Fordham Law School to examine the realities of UN system employees serving in the field. Many of you have volunteered to share your experiences, and we are in the process of interviewing you. Thank you. If you would like to be interviewed, please contact us. Your experiences will help us formulate a white paper.

As you know, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has made gender equality one of his priority issues, which will have a domino effect on the rest of the organizations of the UN system. Well, UN-GLOBE wants to make sure that in the UN system, when we speak of gender, we do not speak in the binary only, but also address the diverse range of gender identities and gender expressions that exist in the world.

The UN-GLOBE Task Force on Gender continues to work on its recommendations to the UN system on more inclusive workplaces for trans individuals, as well as intersex individuals. We are nearing the end, and hope to be able to share our draft recommendations with trans rights groups, and intersex rights groups, before we publicize them and make an all-out push for them.