IDAHOT Events 2015: Switzerland

In Switzerland, Dialogai and Pinkcross  celebrated IDAHOT, highlighting the global theme LGBTQI Youth and focussing on LGBTI refugees.

[box type=”note” ]We are still busy collecting information on this year’s IDAHOT activities and are waiting to hear back from activists and event organisers. If you have information to share with us, please write us at contact@dayagainsthomophobia.org[/box]
The situation of LGBTI Refugees in Switzerland
LGBTI refugees and their situation in Switzerland are the focal points of Pinkcross’ project. To debate this issue they  invited activists, politicians, refugees and medias for a work in progress event. The goal was to raise awareness in the Swiss population and institutions.
A hashtag campaign and a law project with their political allies  followed this event as a concrete action for a better treatment of LGBTI refugees.
Pinkcross is the Swiss Gay Federation, based in Bern but connected across the country.
Find out more about them here.

Placemats and Picnic
Dialogai together with UNAIDS carried out the third edition of the IDAHOT placemats to be disseminated in local restaurants, schools, institutions and cafeterias around the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The placemats provide material to reflect and discuss and have been very well received by establishment owners as well as costumers.
This year, the campaign was extended to the whole week of May 17, even though there were small delays due to printing problems. This year’s placemats were designed by LGBTQI Youth, in coherence with the global theme for IDAHOT.
On IDAHOT itself, Dialogai invited everyone to join the “IDAHOT picnic” on Geneva’s lakeshore. Find more details and updates on the event page.
One of the five IDAHOT Placemats from 2013
Find the Placemats for 2015 here.
Dialogai was established in 1982 and has therefore a long history of activism, advocacy and social projects for LGBT people to offer. They are also an important address in raising awareness of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections and offer support for people concerned within French-speaking Switzerland.
Learn more about them and their work here.

In Zurich, the organisation Achtung Liebe (Caution, Love) and allies were handing out information material and provided free hugs in the city centre. Find out more about the organisation and their activities here.

A few days before the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, ILGA launched at the Palais des Nations in Geneva the 10th edition of its annual report on State-Sponsored Homophobia, a world survey of laws: criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love, authored this year by Aengus Carroll and Lucas Paoli Itaborahy.

The launch on May 13 featured a panel discussion on International Human Rights relating to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Speakers included Mona Rishmawi from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ambassador Regina Maria Cordeiro Dunlop of Brazil, co-author of the report, Aengus Carroll, LGBT rights defender, Joseph Sewedo Akoro, ILGA Executive Director, Renato Sabbadini and President of Riwi Corporation, Eric Meerkamper.