Deadline: Thursday 23 February 2023
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Pan Africa ILGA (International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association) works to improve the human rights of individuals on all grounds, including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. PAI, the largest LGBTIQ+ network in Africa, has over 300 member organisations.
The PAI General Assembly takes place on the final day of the conference, 04 August 2023, where member organisations engage with the PAI Constitution, and vote in a new Board for the next two years.
PAI 6th Regional Conference: Pride and Resilience – Fierté et Résilience is taking place from 31st July to 04th August 2023 in Port Louis, Mauritius. We welcome your submission of abstracts for oral presentations, panel presentations, workshops, and artistic presentations.
PAI Conference Themes
The main theme for this year’s conference is Pride and Resilience – Fierté et Résilience. Your abstract submission should speak to this overall theme while focusing deeper on one of the conference’s five themes.
- THEME ONE
Our Youth Our Future: Embracing Pride and Resilience in Shaping our Pan African Vision
We will be consolidating the recommendations from our previous conference by providing a major focus on youth as the future of our movement. On the African continent, millions of young people are currently at risk in many different ways, and this impacts even more young people who identify as LGBTIQ+. How are youth in the sector organizing to change this? Youth organisations will speak about their work in their communities and at local and regional levels. What role can youth play in informing leadership on how to organise the movement in the present context? What role should older activists play in empowering youth to build a sustainable Pan-African movement? How do we ensure that young people are ready to take over the movement? We listen to case studies of youth movements in different regions of the continent. We speak to the importance of storytelling, archiving and documenting our stories to learn from each other through the generations.
- THEME TWO
Queerly African: Towards A Uniquely Pan-African Movement
Academics and activists from each of the five regions on the continent will speak about the research they have conducted around the gains and losses in their region. Speakers will discuss the legal, human rights, and material issues affecting their region. What advances have been made in the sector in each region? What are the key challenges facing LGBTIQ+ persons on the continent? How do we as a movement address challenges? How do we address the anti-gender movement? How can we use and celebrate our rich regional diversity? What role does language and culture play in our work? How do we ensure better resource mobilisation for all regions? How do we challenge laws and policies that violate human rights across the continent, and in regions? How do we increase legal support and representation to ensure better services and better legal representation in all regions? How do the different identities within the LGBTIQ+ community shape the manner in which we organise? Are we addressing issues of masculinity and feminism in the regions, and in our movement?
- THEME THREE
My Body, My Soul, My Space, My Community: Affirming Identity and Diversity
Health and well-being remain critical in the LGBTIQ+ community on the continent where health services, including mental health, remain an illusion. How do we work towards destigmatisation in health and medical services? This includes psycho-social support. It will also address sexual reproductive rights. It includes sexuality, consent, and body positivity. In speaking to these issues – what is the role of traditional medicine and traditional healers? What is the role of spirituality in the well-being of our sector? Is sexual and gender diversity respected as it should be, within our own LGBTIQ+ community? We will have an inter-denominational discussion about religion and queerness, talking from the perspective of the dominant religions on our continent – traditional religions, Islam, and Christianity. We need to look at issues of patriarchy, culture, and language, in identifying positive and negative influences on our well-being. We will speak to the need to address our personal responsibilities in nurturing ourselves as healthy individuals within a healthy LGBTIQ+ community.
- THEME FOUR
Sustainable Development: Taking Our Stand
How does the LGBTIQ+ sector engage with broader struggles on the continent that have an impact on the LGBTIQ+ community? How do we address the intersectionality of issues affecting our sector? How can we use developmental frameworks alongside and complementary to the human rights frameworks in our struggle? What is the sector’s response to the refugee crisis on the continent? There is a practice for countries to not process applications from LGBTIQ+ people, yet they are fleeing from countries because of homophobic laws. What is the LGBTIQ+ community’s response to the global environmental debate? How are we responding to the youth unemployment crisis on the continent that has a direct and devastating impact on our societies, and the LGBTIQ+ community specifically? How does the sector respond to broader political and developmental issues affecting the livelihoods and well-being of LGBTIQ+ people while building an effective Pan-African continental movement?
- THEME FIVE
South-South Collaborations: Shaping Global Alliances
With a focus on south-south collaborations we look at networks on the African continent and we engage with our partners in addressing the challenging global reality. We share experiences and engage with LGBTIQ+ activists from Latin America, Asia, Europe, and North America, from a Pan-African perspective. How do we increase south-to-south cooperation?
Presentations
- Oral Presentations: Oral presentations provide the author(s) the opportunity to present original work related to the conference topics listed above.
- Panel Presentations: Panel presentations provide authors with the option to organise a panel comprising up to 5 individuals speaking on a particular theme. A panel presentation abstract must summarise the overall theme of the panel as well as what each speaker will bring to the discussion.
- Art Presentations: Art presentations provide an interactive forum for artists to present and discuss their work. Presenters will be able to showcase their work and share their inspiration for it, speak about the need for art in activism and interact with different audiences. There is no limitation on what the definition of “art” is.
- Workshops: Active workshops are welcome. These should be as interactive as possible and focusing on the exchanging of skills would be an asset.
Click here to submit your abstracts.
