Pink’s representative attended the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF)
On July 8-18 the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2024 on Sustainable development took place in New York, USA, which is the central United Nations platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level.
A representative from Pink and the Eastern European Coalition for LGBT+ Equality attended the HLPF aiming to engage with delegations and other stakeholders raising the issues within Armenia and the region, to deliver VNR statement during the Armenia’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) and to attend various side events on the progress and challenges of achieving SDGs with the promise not to leave anyone behind, including LGBT+ people.
During the HLPF “Bridging the SDGs: LGBTI Perspectives on Connections Between Poverty, Food Security, Climate Change, Inclusive Societies, and Global Partnerships” LGBTI Stakeholder Group’s side event took place on July 11th, 2024. The representative of Pink and Eastern European Coalition for LGBT+ Equality Lilit Avetisyan participated as one of the speakers during the side event aiming to present the crosscutting principles of reviewing SDGs on eliminating all forms of poverty and ensuring food security, addressing the climate change and obtaining the inclusive societies and global partnerships within the perspective of not leaving anyone behind as well as specific obstacles that LGBT+ populations encounter at local and regional levels.
As one of the guest speakers Lilit Avetisyan highlighted the factors, such as violence and discrimination towards LGBT+ populations, the lack of the access to justice that create obstacles in reaching the available resources and opportunities for education and development, leading to the extreme poverty and non-inclusive societies. She also mentioned about the concerning developments in the Eastern European region, such as restrictive and punitive legislations which shrink the civil society’s spaces, highly affecting the achievement of SDG 16 on having inclusive societies and global partnerships. CSOs play crucial role in achieving SDGs at local and regional levels, putting the special emphasizes on the principles of not leaving anyone behind, including the most vulnerable populations, such as LGBT+ people. And finally, it was stated that the global crises, wars and constant conflicts persistent in the region significantly affect the implementation of SDGs, especially the most vulnerable populations, such as LGBT+ people.
Another Side Event “A Queer Future of Care” took place on July 11th, 2024, at the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, organized by COC Netherland, ILGA Asia, Pan African ILGA and ILGA World. The event started with a special performance by Envy Peru, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, who also contributed to the historic moment earlier that day by entering the UN Headquarters’ building as a drag queen for the first time.
The event was followed by the personal stories of the activists from the countries which had VNR’s during HLPF 2024 and were based on primary presented spotlight reports. Pink’s representative Lilit Avetisyan shared her heartbreaking story about Nay, a trans person from Armenia who was left behind in extreme poverty and without access to justice because of the existing persistent violence and discrimination towards LGBT+ people in Armenia. The story was based on the hundreds of cases documented by the organization and the situation reflected on the Spotlight report on the Implementation of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable development by the Republic of Armenia.
And finally, during the HLPF 2024 Armenia has submitted its 3rd Voluntary National Review Report 2024 on the progress of achieving agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report was presented for review on July 15, 2024. Besides preparing a spotlight report prior to the review, Pink’s representative, presented through LGBTI stakeholder group, managed to deliver a statement during the Voluntary National Review session. The statement was made on behalf of the Armenian civil society organizations and coalitions committed to address gender-based violence and discrimination in Armenia. It highlighted the importance to strengthen the state’s efforts and political will on combating the discrimination, prejudice and violence towards the most vulnerable groups, including LGBT+ people, survivors of sexual violence and other types of gender-based violence, women with multiple backgrounds and marginalized communities to ensure the access to education, justice and available rapid response services, not to leave any group or community behind in implementing the 2030 agenda on Sustainable Development.
