Protection International has been working in the protection of human rights defenders for some years. To date our work has focused mainly on mainstream human rights defenders working in situations of open conflicts. In conversations with various defenders working on LGBTI rights it became evident that we needed to expand our focus and our work to include the specifics faced by this group within the human rights community.

Via our work with LGBTI defenders in Nepal and confirmed by other defenders around the globe, we began to identify common issues that affected the LGBTI community and those that defend it. Extensive research was carried out, by way of both primary and secondary sources, and PI began to adapt its framework.

The manual is designed to be practical, to challenge existing practices, to generate a debate within organisations and perhaps, more ambitiously, within our overall human rights community.

The manual has been tested and adapted, and PI hopes that it will continue to evolve and hopefully remain relevant for the LGBTI community. It can only do that if LGBTI defenders engage with this process that has begun.

Researched and written by Shaun Kirven, Enrique Eguren and Marie Caraj