PUBLISHED:January 14, 2013

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on LGBT Human Rights Advocacy

Friday, February 8
Room 101
Kenan Institute for Ethics

Co-sponsored by:
  • The Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute of Ethics
  • The Center for International and Comparative Law at Duke Law School
  • The Program in the Study of Sexualities and Women's Studies Program
  • The Center for LGBT Life at Duke

All Duke University faculty, students and staff are welcome to attend this workshop. Please RSVP to Kelly Lipford at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

For a detailed agenda, please click here.

1. Participants. The confirmed participants for the workshop, in alphabetical order, are:

  • Clifford Bob, Raymond J. Kelley Endowed Chair in International Relations, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Julie Dorf, Senior Advisor, The Council for Global Equality, Washington, DC
  • Stephen Engel, Assistant Professor of Politics, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
  • Laurence Helfer, Harry R. Chadwick, Sr. Professor of Law, Duke University
  • Cymene Howe, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX
  • Allison Jernow, Senior Legal Adviser, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Paul Johnson, Anniversary Reader, Department of Sociology, University of York, UK
  • Holning Lau, Assistant Professor of Law, UNC Law School, Chapel Hill, NC
  • Colin Robinson, Executive Director of CAISO and Secretariat of the Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities (CariFLAGS), Trinidad & Tobago
  • Suzanne Shanahan, Acting Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics and Associate Research Professor in Sociology, Duke University
  • Amy Stone, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX
  • Kees Waaldijk, Professor of Comparative Sexual Orientation Law, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law, Kings College London, UK

2. Objectives. The workshop will provide an opportunity to bring together a small group of scholars and practitioners whose work focuses on LGBT advocacy internationally, comparatively, and in different regions of the world. We hope that participants will share the findings of their research and professional activities, exchange insights about strategies for achieving legal and policy reforms, and engage in a dialogue that is enriched by insights from law, social science, and various types of advocacy and practice.

3. Location and format. The workshop will begin on Friday morning February 8, 2013 in Room 101 at the Kenan Institute for Ethics and run through mid-afternoon. There will be no paper presentations at the workshop. Instead, we will organize a series of panels focusing on different themes or topics such as:

  • Comparison recent LGBT advocacy campaigns such as those anti-"homosexual propaganda" laws in Eastern Europe and challenges to decriminalization in Africa and the Caribbean
  • Evaluating the modalities of advocacy—domestic and international litigation, lobbying, and other forms of social mobilization
  • Analyzing the opportunities and challenges of building relationships between transnational NGOs and local LGBT activists
  • Considering the ways in which religion underpins both a resistance to and the advancement of legal rights, including a discussion of the European Court of Human Rights' recent judgment in Ladele and Mcfarlane v. United Kingdom
  • Anticipating and responding to backlashes by governments and nonstate actors
  • Developing best practices for LGBT future advocacy

4. Highlighting recently-published books. The workshop will also provide an opportunity to highlight, both as part of the panel discussions and more broadly, several recently-published books by the participants, including:

  • Clifford Bob, The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics (Cambridge 2012)
  • Cymene Howe, Mediating Sexuality: Activism and the Politics of Sexual Rights in Nicaragua (Duke 2013)
  • Allison Jernow, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Justice: A Comparative Law Casebook (International Commission of Jurists 2012)
  • Paul Johnson, Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights (Routledge 2012)
  • Amy Stone, Gay Rights at the Ballot Box (Minnesota 2012)