Global Rights is excited to be implementing an important project in Sierra Leone to build the capacity of LGBT activists and organizations to strengthen their ability to promote the human rights of the LGBTI community.  Through an intensive training and technical assistance program, Global Rights provides our Sierra Leonean partner organization with the knowledge and skills they need to act within a legal framework to promote and protect their basic civil and political rights.

Building on our previous work in Nigeria, Global Rights is conducting a series of trainings for LGBTI activists and human rights organizations.   Using Global Rights’ Demanding Credibility and Sustaining Activism: A Guide to Sexuality-Based Advocacy, the trainings range from learning about how to document and monitor human rights violations to developing an advocacy campaign.  Our Nigerian LGBTI partner, TIER, led a Training of Trainers component in 2012, which strengthened the capacity of our Sierra Leonean partners and encouraged South-South experience sharing to help foster a regional network of LGBTI activists. 

We were pleased that the U.S. Ambassador for Sierra Leone, Michael S. Owen, made opening remarks at Global Rights’ first training in November 2011.  Twenty-four activists representing five human rights organization from Freetown, Kenema, Bo and Makeni, including Global Rights’ local partners, Dignity Association and Why Can’t We Get Married, participated in the training. 

This project is being led by Sierra Leonean, Hudson Tucker. It has been made possible with a grant from The U.S. State Department: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL).

Publications

Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Access to Health Care and Violence/Bias: A Sierra Leone Case Study (2013)