Outcome report promotes ways Ireland can engage LGBTQ communities in WPS efforts
Ahead of Ireland’s fourth Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan (NAP), Trinity PhD student Alexandra Richardson and I have been brainstorming. We recognized this as an important moment to prioritize insights from LGBTQ (lesbian, bay, bisexual and transgender and queer) women are a part the agenda. While it is important to see commitments to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) within WPS, it is paramount that this comment from Ireland be informed and lead by LGBTQ people, including lesbian, bisexual and transgender women. Colombia continues to serve as a leading example for this work, with continuing commitment to queer feminist inclusion led by the LGBTQ organization Colombia Diversa as evidenced in their first NAP published last year.
On 6 December last year, Alexandra and I convened a workshop of people to reflect on what is important to prioritize in the National Action Plan. In the workshop a group of 40 people across different sectors learned about ways for potentially queering the next Irish NAP. Themes for the table discussions included: Queering the WPS agenda, Working with queer civil society organisations and Reviewing Irish WPS National Action Plans (NAPs). The event was cohosted by me, Dr. Anupama Ranawana (Durham University) Dr Gillian Wylie (Trinity College Dublin) and Laura Beltrán (Columbia Diversa). Three additional people joined by some additional excellent facilitators, Tara Grace Connolly (Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission), and Basira Paigham (OutRight International). All participants were required to comply with our code of conduct, and the event was trans inclusive.
Workshop participants used the Queering Women, Peace and Security: A Practice Based Toolkit to learn about 1) queering the four pillars of WPS, 2) building feminist and LGBTQ collaborations, and 3) queering WPS NAPS.
Dr Gillian Wylie, Dr Jamie J. Hagen, Alexandra Richardson, and Basira Paigham
Outcome report and recommendations for ways forward
One of the most powerful ways to engage meaningfully with the LGBTQ community in Ireland is to continue efforts to domesticate the WPS agenda. As such, the WPS efforts can link efforts for engaging with coalitions abroad, with ongoing efforts within Ireland. The following five recommendations are suggestions for ways to begin to do so in Ireland:
Another important point of intervention, and one that Ireland has a clear commitment to internationally, is supporting LGBTQ queer and trans asylum seekers. As this work is also part of commitments to gender within the broad Women, Peace and Security agenda, it is valuable to continue to explore ways to collaborate across these intersections in the future.
Recognizing these opportunities, and as a follow on activity from the workshop in November, we hosted a drop-in session at Outhouse in Dublin to share the outcome report. During the event we highlighted the outcomes from the work.
Next steps for queer feminist collaboration
Shortly after our workshop, Ireland released their fourth annual report on WPS. The report notes that Ireland continue to ‘support sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) issues in multilateral fora, the EU, and through other relevant coalitions and organisations’. Recognizing this, we hope the report developed as an outcome document for the workshop offers valuable entry points for future collaboration with lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in Ireland’s WPS efforts.
We look forward to seeing Ireland’s fourth Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan. Following the release of Ireland’s forthcoming NAP we are keen to work in coalition to continue to research, fund and support queer feminist collaborations, with a focus on learning from LGBTQ asylum seekers living in Ireland.
As a next step, the authors aim to work with LGBTQ community collaborators to develop a targeted resource for recommendations for how WPS can best engage domestic and international efforts to support LGBTQ asylum seekers following the released of Ireland’s fourth WPS NAP. Read the full workshop outcome report below.
