Guatemala’s attempted ban on LGBTQIA+ rights shows just how far we are from equality

Natalia MarsicovetereInequality, Influencing, Rights

In March, the country very nearly passed legislation to ban same-sex marriage and LGBTQIA+-inclusive sex education in schools – as well as increasing criminal penalties for abortion. In our latest blog for Pride month, Natalia Marsicovetere highlights the urgent need to build on the coalition for justice that stopped it

How the queer history of the Philippines inspires our struggle today

Cheng PagulayanGender, Influencing, Rights

In pre-colonial times, Indigenous communities respected the “babaylan”, or Filipino version of a shaman who sometimes crossed genders. Today, these healers are icons for LGBTQIA+ activists fighting to outlaw discrimination, says Cheng Pagulayan in our latest blog for Pride month

Faced with impossible healthcare costs, unsafe housing and rampant discrimination, Lebanon’s LGBTQIA+ people are in survival mode

May AchourHealth, Research, Rights

The price of a single therapy session is now half the monthly minimum wage and most LGBTQIA+ people face violence where they live. In the first in a series of blogs to mark Pride month, May Achour introduces two new Oxfam policy briefs on the state of healthcare and housing

Committed to Care: Towards a Feminist Future at the Generation Equality Forum

Amber ParkesGender, Rights

by Amar Nijhawan, Amber Parkes and Julie Thekkudan Generation Equality Forum: A blueprint for gender equality   “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights” – a key refrain from the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.  This was a galvanising moment for the women’s rights and feminist movement globally, putting forward a bold vision for the realisation …

A fresh approach to visual communications in development: allow me to illustrate

Isabelle KermeenActive citizenship, Rights

2020 brought many surprises. At the beginning of the pandemic, the last thing I expected was to be coaching voice actors down a crackly line to a recording studio in Afghanistan. My organisation, Integrity Action, was producing an animated video to showcase one of the impact stories from our work – this was part of our shift, over recent years, …

Transformative leadership is not just a buzzword

Ines SmythGender, Participation and Leadership, Rights

Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a terrifying reality worldwide, women have organised together across environmental, anti-racist, labour and political movements to provide immediate local care and support to those affected. They have reimagined the deep, fundamental changes we need for a shared future that is more just, safe and kind.   These include formal strategy propositions like the Hawaii State …

What did Oxfam learn from talking to workers in food and footwear factories supplying M&S?

Rachel WilshawPrivate sector, Rights

In 2017 M&S asked Oxfam to carry out a ‘gap analysis’ study to ‘better understand the true worker experience and identify the changes we need to make in our own operations and those of our suppliers’ similar to another undertaken by Oxfam together with Unilever. For Oxfam, the project provided a rare opportunity to hear people’s experience of working in food and footwear factories which supply M&S and other retailers.  M&S and Oxfam set …