Empowered Voices: A Week of Action with LGBTIQ+ & Women Human Rights Defenders
Take a look at what we got up to ahead of International Women’s Day, alongside three inspiring LGBTIQ+ and women human rights defenders!
Ensuring that LGBTIQ+ individuals and women have a seat at the decision-making table is not just a matter of inclusion—it is essential for creating policies and societies that are truly just and equitable. Historically, these voices have been sidelined in governance, lawmaking, and community leadership, leading to systemic inequalities that persist today. When LGBTIQ+ people and women human rights defenders are actively involved in shaping laws and policies, they bring lived experiences that challenge discrimination, advance gender equality, and create safer, more inclusive spaces for all. Their leadership fosters stronger democracies and more resilient communities, ensuring that progress is not just for the few but for everyone.
This week, we were joined by non-binary human rights defender, Rebecca Odhiambo, and women human rights defenders Doris Kathia and Alena Chekhovich. Rebecca is the Coordinator and Research Director of Women Empower and Mentor All (WEmpower), an LBQT feminist organisation based in Kisumu, Kenya, that has grown from the evidence produced through community-based feminist participatory research between 2021 and 2024. WEmpower is a member-based organisation focusing on collective well-being and health equity for LGBTIQ+ persons in Kisumu through mental health promotion, economic empowerment, community building, and advocacy and social-political action. Doris is the Founder and Executive Director of Raise Your Voice, a leading initiative to empower and advance adolescents and young women, and promote their human rights with a critical aspect of sex workers, young mothers, sexual and gender minorities and young people living with HIV. Alena is a Belarusian activist and lawyer currently living in exile. Her work with human rights organisation, Human Constanta, as a lawyer centred around issues such as implementing alternatives to immigration detention in Belarus. She is currently studying a legal masters at the University of Dundee.
Both Rebecca and Doris are current fellows on the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship which supports human rights defenders around the world through temporary relocation in Scotland.
The events this week sparked critical conversations, amplifying Rebecca, Doris and Alena’s advocacy efforts, and meant they could meet with a range of parliamentary and civil society allies. Such events raise public awareness, mobilise allies, and urge governments and funding bodies to take meaningful action to support feminist and queer-led movements.
Backing Human Rights Defenders at a Pivotal Time for LGBTIQ+ and Women's Rights
Alena, Rebecca and Doris speaking on the panel at Scotland House
Despite their critical role in advancing human rights and justice, LGBTIQ+ and women-led movements continue to face severe underfunding, threatening their sustainability and impact. These grassroots movements are at the forefront of advocating for gender equality, access to vital healthcare and treatment, reproductive rights, and protections for marginalised communities. Increased funding and support are urgently needed to bolster these organisations, enabling them to respond to crises, provide essential services, and push back against rising discrimination and violence. Without adequate resources, these movements risk being silenced, leaving the communities they serve even more vulnerable.
Alongside Rebecca, Doris and Alena, we held a roundtable with Scotland House for donors, international organisations, the London diplomatic community, and civil society actors, providing a forum for them to hear from and support human rights defenders from the front lines during a precarious moment for the LGBTIQ+ movement and for women’s rights worldwide.
With the retreat in global aid and the rising backlash against human rights, particularly sexual and reproductive health and rights, and those who defend them, it is more essential than ever to come together and share solidarity, strategies and solutions with human rights defenders. The roundtable presented a critical opportunity for allies to come together and support women and LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders in the face of escalating threats to global rights.
Attendees and panellists alike shared strategies, solutions and solidarity to those at the front lines of addressing global challenges, focusing the conversation on actionable, rights-based strategies that build resilience, promote inclusive, participatory, accountable services, and work to ensure the protection and rights of vulnerable populations in the face of global crises.
In their intervention, Rebecca spoke about the importance of applying an intersectional lens for building feminist strategies, as well as the need to build the autonomy of LGBTIQ+ people and organisations through community appropriate resources.
Alena highlighted the challenges that organisations are experiencing, particularly due to recent funding freezes, creating a critical financial gap in foreign aid. This heavily impacts civil society organisations and how they operate, creating the need to refocus their work. This has particularly been the case for Belarusian organisations, all while Belarusian human rights defenders themselves are experiencing transnational repression.
Doris gave a powerful testimony at the roundtable about the realities in rural areas in Kenya with regards to equal access to healthcare, particularly sexual and reproductive healthcare. Her work with sex workers and young queer people ensures that they have access to services, safe spaces and knowledge about services and their rights. Without such support, such access and knowledge would only be reserved for privileged communities, Doris recounted.
Parliamentarians Championing Change
From left to right: Rebecca Odhiambo, Alena Chekhovich, Baroness Prashar and Doris Kathia.
Ahead of International Women’s Day and to celebrate the incredible work of women human rights defenders, the All-Party Human Rights Parliamentary Group and the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union organised a drop-in breakfast event for Parliamentarians to meet with civil society organisations and defenders alike.
By engaging directly with UK decision-makers, Rebecca, Doris and Alena had the opportunity to highlight the urgent challenges they face, from crackdowns on civil society in their countries, to the lack of legal protections for marginalised communities. Such access allows defenders to push for diplomatic pressure and international solidarity that can help sustain their movements and protect those at risk. When UK policymakers listen to and amplify defender voices, they can play a vital role in shaping foreign policy, aid strategies, and human rights advocacy that genuinely support grassroots efforts on the ground.
These interactions offer not only a platform to share lived experiences, but also opportunities to influence global human rights discourse. The UK has long been a key ally in international human rights initiatives, and its support can bolster protections for activists facing threats, whether through asylum pathways, funding streams, or diplomatic interventions. By fostering relationships with Parliamentarians, defenders can ensure that their struggles are not ignored and that international actors remain accountable in standing up for human rights. Such engagement is more than just symbolic—it can lead to concrete action that strengthens movements fighting for justice, equality, and fundamental freedoms.
