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I'd like to now introduce. We're going to hear our three commentators, and the first of them is Boris Dietrich. And again, you will have met him over the last, um, 2.5 days. Uh, he's another lawyer. I sometimes say, you know, the law is important, but it's not enough in human rights. But we certainly need the lawyers who forged, uh so much in so many places. Um, and was a district court judge in the Netherlands. He was elected a member of parliament for the, uh, Social Liberal [00:00:30] Party, and, um, and became a leader of the party, which he served a role. He served until 2006, but also he was one of the first openly gay members of Parliament. He sponsored the bill on the opening of civil marriage, the same sex couples and the bill on adoption by gay couples. And both laws came into effect in 2000, and one I wonder why we're still having difficulty with adoption here in New Zealand. It's really no excuse. And he was awarded rewarded [00:01:00] with the gay newspaper award in 2004, as the most influential Dutch gay man none of which stopped him being knighted in recognition of his public service in 2006. So, Boris, it's my great pleasure to introduce you and to give you the platform. OK, thank you very much. It's It's so difficult after John's speech to come [00:01:30] back to the conference and reading my notes in my notebook because I was asked to give my impressions on how I thought the conference went and what the problems are that lay ahead of us. And John finished on such a wonderful note that I feel that it's difficult to really go back to the last couple of days and highlight some of the things that I think we still need to talk about, and we still need to explore [00:02:00] a little bit further. But let me start out by saying that I think this conference was organised extremely well. I've been in my life. I've been to many, many conferences, but this conference really beats it all. And Barry, you're standing now way in the back. You did a marvellous job, but not only you. There is, of course also a whole group of nameless people who haven't been here [00:02:30] on stage, but who took care of us who took care of the the sessions starting on time, ending on time, taking us to lunch, cleaning up the things that we are strong. And it proved to be the case because of the wonderful outcome. And hopefully next month or at the end of April, when the Supreme Court will render its decision, let's hope it will be the same decision. But at least the groups proved to [00:03:00] work together and to forget their internal differences and to join forces. And I think that is also something very important. And I will come back to that, Um because, um, yesterday we had a meeting and Susan Hawthorn was the speaker. I was chairing that, and, uh, I was listening to her, and she also said something I thought was very true. And she said, um, we have all these pillars in the LGBTI [00:03:30] community. Uh, but we should take care that each pillar has enough space to share its stories, to grow, to develop and to to unite with the people in that pillar. And she was talking about the lesbians DL from the LGBTI. And she said, actually, there haven't been any lesbian campaigns in recent years and [00:04:00] in her opinion, is a good thing to have. But, she said, I don't want to feel pressure from the other pillars from the other groups because we should be able to develop ourselves and to have enough space without being criticised by others. And of course, this also goes for other pillars for instance, the trans groups. So for us, it should be a challenge to respect each other's [00:04:30] space, to allow each other to grow. But to always keep in mind this common goal of we together want to move forward and to achieve something because we are all here, actually, for the important vision that human rights are universal are for everybody. But unfortunately in daily life, it appears to be that they are not really for the LGBTI community, always in the extent that they should be. So [00:05:00] we should really keep in mind that we should work together. Um, this common denominator is very important. Yesterday we had a session about spirituality, and we started with a meditation which was wonderful, actually, because there is so much information during such a conference that sometimes your head just goes crazy. So it was wonderful to [00:05:30] sit in a circle, to close your eyes and to breathe deeply and to really go back to your inner self. And the person who led the group said, I would love to talk about Queer Union and for me that was also something very important to realise that we all have our differences and we all have our own narrative. But still, we are here for this queer union. We are here to to be together and [00:06:00] to be forced together to improve the world, not only for us and our brothers and sisters, but also for future generations. Now some of the challenges that need to be mentioned is our, for instance, the funding issue, because it's very painful to see how some groups are able to attend conferences or some individuals and others are not. So. Funding [00:06:30] is going to be an important issue also for future conferences, and in that respect, it's quite painful to hear that the New Zealand government has cut down on funding because from this wonderful conference we can take so much with us also for future meetings and gatherings. But if people are not able to come and join and share their experiences. That is very problematic. So [00:07:00] that is something we should find a strategy for how to address that problem. To be effective on the United Nations level is another thing that puzzles me a little bit. John Fisher told about the Yogyakarta principles and about the joint statement and about the side event in December where Secretary General Ban Ki moon spoke those wonderful [00:07:30] words which are really inspiring. But to be effective on UN level, we here should realise that we actually communicate there with diplomats who never speak about sexuality or homosexuality and don't know the acronym LGBTI. They don't know what it stands for, let alone When I was listening to Felicia Brown Acton when she said The LGBTI [00:08:00] label doesn't fit us in the Pacific, I completely understand that. And I thought it was a very important message. Um, and I really think it's a challenge for all of us to find new language, new narratives so that everybody will feel included and that what we talk about is relevant also for the people on the Pacific Islands. Having said that, I see [00:08:30] the challenge in going to the UN in Geneva or the UN in New York and talking to people who do not know what homosexuality is and mix it up with paedophilia, for instance, and sometimes they just pretend they don't know that. But so then, in that context, it's very difficult to talk about all the denominations. So we should find language that is persuasive for other groups and [00:09:00] not belonging to us, not belonging to our family in order to persuade them to be on our side. And we should find that language while recognising how important it is to feel that the words we use reflect on our situation. So that's really a very big challenge. And the conference here really made me think about that. And I hope that in the future we will find a way to address that issue. [00:09:30] Um, we are here together, um, because we all know what we want and what we talk about, Um, what hasn't been stressed yet? And I find a very important and I heard that in the session about Article 3 77 is that we should also reach out to groups beyond our spectrum, and examples could be the trade unions or liberal religious groups, other [00:10:00] groups that are not really part of our community. But we need them to work together with them because we need allies to have a majority behind the ideals we want to achieve. So I think also for future gatherings, it might be interesting to see how we can include those other groups into a conference like this and let them let them give the opportunity to [00:10:30] listen to the wealth of, um, our stories and of what we have to say, because they can learn so much from us. So it would be wonderful if they could be here next time and you're here. OK, great. I wish I would have heard more from you here on stage, for instance. But it's wonderful that you're here. I'm really glad for that. [00:11:00] There is one issue that really needs to be talked about, and that's the influence, the negative influence of religion. We were supposed to have a session this morning about the influence of religion. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But throughout the 2.5 days, I've heard a lot about the negative aspects of religion. For instance, [00:11:30] in the Pacific with its own culture that actually, when the Christian churches became very vocal and influential, it really changed the way people look at our lives. There. In the film clip, Grey Poor showed we saw Fundamentalists Indonesia surrounding the hotel where LGBTI groups were [00:12:00] gathering in order to talk about our issues. And so we also saw the aggressiveness of fundamentalist groups. What we see in other parts of the world in Uganda, for instance, is American conservative ministers going into the country teaching courses about the danger of gay life, the dangers, the danger that homosexuals [00:12:30] are taking over our society and people are unfortunately receptive to that. The last example in that respect I can give is that this American minister called Scott Lively came to Moldova. Only a few weeks ago, there was a wonderful conference organised by the Netherlands, the Dutch LGBT Group and LGA Europe. It was a wonderful conference, a conclusion of five years project [00:13:00] with groups from the whole region, and we were there for about four days and having interesting discussions, we were able to have meetings with members of the government of the parliament there, and after the conference was over religious groups in Moldova invited Scott Lively to come to that country, and it was one week after our conference was over and he [00:13:30] spoke there and he was saying, You should be very careful about the gays because the gays have a secret agenda and before you know it, they are recruiting Children at school and they are introducing same sex marriage bills and things like that. And unfortunately, unfortunately, while we were having this wonderful conference and we were engaging government officials of Moldova, he reached out to members of Parliament [00:14:00] there, and they all of a sudden started to become very hesitant about the anti discrimination bill, which was tabled in Parliament, and the discussions were supposed to take place in April. Uh, one of the non grounds for nondiscrimination in the anti discrimination bill is sexual orientation. And, um, many of those members of Parliament became afraid and he said, Well, if we are supporting that, then maybe they [00:14:30] will introduce same sex marriage or our Children this or that. So now there is a new situation, a negative situation in Moldova simply because the religious groups are are also organised, Um, and that now I come to my last point. Um, when Grace was speaking grace poor this morning, she also talked about the use of social media, and I think it's a wonderful challenge for us, you know, to [00:15:00] use Facebook, Twitter and all the other Internet possibilities. But Grace said a thing, which is really true, and that is that the enemy is also using those same tools. And we've seen that in Moldova that the religious groups immediately shared the information from our conference amongst each other. We are able to get him out to the country and immediately had an action plan. We know that in the United States, in Arizona, there was [00:15:30] a meeting where religious groups invited 40 missions to the UN in New York, 44 0 to come to Arizona to a big conference organised by family groups, as it's called. And there they were, talking about the dangers of the Yogyakarta principles, the danger of joint statements, and they were talking about our agenda where John Fisher so eloquently [00:16:00] talked about. They know that, too, and they are strategizing how to counter what we want to achieve. So I would like to end. Uh, unfortunately, it's not a very positive note, but I would like to end by asking you to be alert to that. And maybe when we organise new conferences that we should really try to devote time, how to strategize in order to be very effective [00:16:30] in the future. Because it's so wonderful to be here together, to feel the energy and to see that what we are striving for is right and just and it would be awful if the enemy would be so well organised that they can have a detrimental effect on what we want to achieve. So we should be strong and united. But don't lose our own identity and our own cultural heritage. Thank you very much. And it was [00:17:00] really a pleasure for me to be in your midst. Thank you. Thank you very much for that, Boris. And I think we certainly need to be remembered about what we face in order to get to the next stage. And, um, but I just want to acknowledge that with you in New York and John in Geneva, we've got powerful links and [00:17:30] really an incredible source of support and also information, because once again, it's almost like a circle. We need things happening internationally, but unless we're doing things on the ground in our own communities, um, in our own neighbourhoods and with our own governments, nothing will change internationally. But what happens internationally also puts a little added bit of pressure. And in fact, I had an idea when you were talking that perhaps you could persuade [00:18:00] the, um Netherlands government to challenge the New Zealand government to match it dollar for dollar on its human rights spending. Anyway, So we've got two more great discussants to go. And the first of these is Satya Rag who founded and continues to facilitate an Indian Trans network called Sam. Um, in addition to creating [00:18:30] a safe space for trans people, their families and friends, Samura builds bridges with the medical and legal fraternities in India. Very much evidence of that reaching out to other communities. Well, actually, I had prepared a little speech initially and I'm almost beginning to change it now after hearing everything that has gone before me, and [00:19:00] I wanted to acknowledge the entire experience that I've had in the last more than three days now, which is an absolute contrast to what one experiences daily back home, where one's sense of trans and one's sense of queerness is something that you can't live with on a daily basis. But I guess it begins with the with the idea of visibility. And I really felt [00:19:30] that I was visible in these last three days, and I felt that I was amongst those who know me who understand me who can see where I'm coming from and who are able to understand the language and the words that I'm using. Actually, the first two days was really I was at another. [00:20:00] At another level, I didn't think that I was attending something which was real and, uh and then something happened on the third day, and in a sense, the bubble broke a little. And it made me sort of start thinking about what probably Jamison Green was writing in his book about becoming a visible man and, uh, at a at a health panel that Jack was facilitating. [00:20:30] We walked out of that and somebody came up to me and said, uh, I, I thought you were only a trans activist. And then it started. I started thinking about it, and I was wondering Why is it that this person felt this way and very quickly she could do the processing? And she said, But it's really interesting because you know somebody who [00:21:00] is, uh, somebody after whom. If you look at that person, you can't tell and when you get to know it kind of challenges us in a certain way. Uh, and I was just beginning to think if this is somebody who has spent so many years within the community and in activism and in academia could go through this experience of reading me in [00:21:30] a certain way, I was just wondering that Am I going back to the experience of what is our daily experience back home? And how much would it really take to shift some very ingrained ideas about who we are and how we should be, whether there is an image of a trans woman and an expectation out of that, whether there is an image of a trans man and there is an expectation [00:22:00] out of that, and I went back to feeling a little invisible, I felt invisible, too. Then he comes. I'm a transgender in Hong Kong. I love both women and trans men what [00:22:30] I and that is not clear. And I, um II a are married and have a beautiful 60 year old son. I I'm on the group and I know I'm [00:23:00] a man, and I'm a man. I love this so much. Ok, hi. Yeah, I and grand um And I want to, uh, my partner. [00:23:30] So friends and brothers and sisters in arms We are standing amongst you and we want all of you who are in support of us to stand with us. [00:24:00] Thank you, everybody. Thank you. And all of us from the F two M Asia delegate here. Delegation here would like to thank Jack burn for this because our visibility has been possible because of him. A big thank you to Jack. Thank you. Our last discussant [00:24:30] is is the wonderful Chanel, who is an outreach worker with the New Zealand prostitutes collective. Thank you, my friend. Um God, how do you top that? Um, first of all, um OK, first of all, um, [00:25:00] being, um, an indigenous person of this land, Um, I must follow, um, protocol. And, um, the first protocol is that you must always acknowledge, um, give the power. Um, give the acknowledgement to the high power to the Lord because he is the person that gives us life and energy and love. [00:25:30] The second acknowledgement goes to the which is the house that hosts you because it is the house that protects you from rain and went, It's the house that feeds you. And it's also the house that keeps you together. And the third acknowledgement, [00:26:00] of course, goes to everybody who's made who have made things possible. Our visitors, um, our organise the organisers, um, like for the HR C Who? Um, Jack Byrne? Um um uh, the people, the people that fed us um, Kayla. Thanks. Kayla. She's not here. Um, but [00:26:30] she she she and she did such a wonderful job. And, um uh, we need to think, Yeah, it's it's all those little people all the people in the background that, um, make the magic happen and and it's people like us are the ones that just need to sit back and enjoy at it. And I would just like to say, um um [00:27:00] to to send out a big, um, acknowledgement to to to our our visitors, our visitors that have that came from from around the world. And, uh, I would like to say that, um, you know, I, I could say, like, from the Pacific. But, um, you know, it's I don't wanna say that. I want to say, um, thank you, too. Starting from the top from [00:27:30] the Rock of Polynesia. Uh, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Melania. Uh, and if I forget anybody, I apologise. And we move across the ditch to Australia and from Australia, We moved to the east to Thailand, uh, to Indonesia, uh, to India, To China, Korea, Japan, Um, [00:28:00] across to Europe, to the Netherlands, To Germany, uh, to England, Uh, America, Africa, Uh, and wherever else. If I like I said if I've forgotten forgive me, but that's, um a big, um Uh, yes, we had, um II. I, uh Excuse me. I have never seen so many trans people in one room [00:28:30] myself and especially from a different parts of the world. And it's, um it was really interesting. Um, the workshop with the, um the that I went to was absolutely, absolutely wonderful. They, uh they seem to be very, um they they they, um they're valued and they and they go out and they and they they they they [00:29:00] make it their world and and, um, they seem very, very, very, very happy. And they sort of like to me, they they work hard and they give to the they give to their people and their people love them. And that's, um, to me, that's absolutely wonderful. And I was quite touched by by the, um, by those girls and, um uh, meeting, um, the girls from Asia from the Philippines, from India. It was just [00:29:30] a wonderful experience. I. I work as a liaison for the transgender community that work in the sex industry. You know, the sex industry is there are a lot of, um, trans girls that work in the industry, and, um, you know, it's there's no shame in that. It's just that it's just the way it is. Um, not only in New Zealand, but around the whole world. And, um um, there are still some issues [00:30:00] around that that need to be but need to be talked about. And, uh, we in New Zealand are here, uh, for those girls, and to show our, um, unwavering support for them. Uh uh, also, um, as, um as, um, the tradition of, um, our people, [00:30:30] Um when we end a a talk, we must always end with with a or a song. And, um, the song that I've chosen is a song. It's actually like a New Zealand anthem. It's not the New Zealand anthem, but it's like the New Zealand anthem. And I think it's quite appropriate for our visitors. And it's called, Um, now is the hour. And I think most New Zealand people would know the English version. And, um, [00:31:00] there is is a Maori version. And, um, the Maori version is very poetic and and in the sense that it says as I lay here in the moonlight, I'm dreaming about you because you're going away. But while you're away, please remember me. So when you return, I will be waiting, weeping, and I'd like to ask, um, some of the Maori girls [00:31:30] um Elizabeth Um um OK, so this is this is we're gonna sing the Maori version first, and then we're going to sing the English. If you know the English, you can sit there and you can sing it as well. There's no shame, right? No, no. Take the OK. Cool. A church [00:32:00] Um oh, yeah. Mhm. Uh, yeah. And quick. Yeah, Yeah. Come. [00:32:30] OK, OK. Did it? Yeah. No. To see th easy to say [00:33:00] goodbye. Be said, um I see. Mhm. Oh, please. We? Yeah. [00:33:30] Where need a you me away? Yeah, when need a you know, 10. [00:34:00] And just just before I give the rest of you a chance to have some final words on your behalf, I'd like to give the people who have contributed to this wonderful session [00:34:30] a small token of our in New Zealand to take away with them. So good, John. And [00:35:00] actually, I might just stand here. It's probably easier. Um, as a New Zealander working internationally, One of the things that I most missed was the dimension that Maori have added to the way we do things and welcoming and saying goodbye. And, um, late last year, there was a regional Asia Pacific, uh, [00:35:30] United Nations workshop in Auckland on the rights of indigenous peoples. And after it was completed, I was asking the UN people who participated, um, you know what? They how they'd found it. And they said we've never been to a UN meeting like it. We've never been to a UN meeting where there were so many songs sung and stories told, and [00:36:00] I know and they've told lots of people that back in Geneva. So it is something that thank you, Chantelle, for bringing us back, um, to the music and the emotion, um, of this ending of this wonderful conference. But just before I hand over to Barry, uh, for the I'd just like to give other people a chance to say to have a few make a few last comments, I [00:36:30] Oh, there are microphones. So which Yeah, I'd I'd ask everyone to use because for those of us who are getting on, uh um Kay Jones here and I just wanted to firstly thank our many transgender and intersex people for their visibility and for sharing their stories with us because I've really appreciated that because so often the tea is invisible. And [00:37:00] for our Pacifica people, um, I'd also like to share one little thing as a bisexual woman. I was really looking forward to the presentation on the invisible bee, um, by the sisters from the Philippines. And unfortunately, that workshop disappeared. So the workshop on invisible bees became totally invisible. And so I'm just standing here sort of saying, yes, we're here in the alphabet. And maybe next time [00:37:30] we could be there more on the programme just down immediately in front of the previous speaker. The human rights around, um, the Internet and discrimination [00:38:00] in in, um, Twitter and Facebook And having suffered that little, um, in the last little while, I wonder what your comments would be about how we could improve that. Actually, that's a very pertinent question. And I, I think the thing about human rights is they don't just happen. They happen everywhere or they don't or they can be abused everywhere. And, um, last year the Human Rights Commission started has started to do some work on, um, [00:38:30] Internet, human rights and responsibilities. Although I'm I'm told that the Internet community doesn't like the addition of that word responsibilities, but nonetheless, And if you, um and and some of that our initial thinking around that is reflected in, uh, the the the 2010 Human rights in New Zealand 2010. The the review of the Comprehensive Review of Human Rights that we published on International Human Rights Day, Uh, last year and which is on our website. [00:39:00] So the the chapter on freedom of expression and belief And yes, Jack has some 00, in your packs, you've got the summary. But actually the issues are teased out, obviously, in a lot more detail in the full chapter on the website. So there's some we we're starting to do some thinking we've started to engage with the Internet community, Um, and with people, um, you know who have an active interest in the issues. And we'd very much like, you know, any, uh, comments [00:39:30] and feedback and engagement on those issues. But it's certainly something, um, that there needs to be a lot of community discussion about, uh because sometimes Internet rights are rep presented as only in relation to freedom of expression. And the question is, you know, how do the protections that are also required? How do those, um, how are they? Can they be reflected in the Internet? Thank you. [00:40:00] I'm Eileen Brown from the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. I'm with the Art at Work Network and just Boris. We were ahead of you because I just want all the out at work people. The union members to put up their hands in this audience. So, uh, so we are We are We are really? Well, we are human rights union rights. A queer rights. Um, you know, we are proud and out in the union, and we have loved being here. We've had a fabulous meeting this morning of our own, [00:40:30] and we passed some resolutions about about human rights in the Pacific and our absolute commitment And we, our colleague from Fiji, especially about the need to be very aware of the human rights abuses, including trade union abuses towards trade unionists in Fiji. Um, and last or second, lastly, um, we've got a a leaflet, so I'm going to give these out to anybody who wants one [00:41:00] about out and proud in the workplace. And the other thing that we need to do is about the Yogyakarta principles. We passed a resolution to go to our own trade union organisation, the Council of Trade Unions in New Zealand. But I think internationally too, because, um, though we think unions as trade union, we think of unions as, uh, human rights defenders. We know there's work to do there too. Thank you. Thanks. [00:41:30] Yeah, I am looking over the side, but I'm not seeing many hands on that side. I'm Ruth Bush. I'm with a group called Lesbian Elders Village. I want to stress that there is no even analysis of the needs of older LGBT citizens of this country that the yoga Carter principles stand for equal access to housing [00:42:00] the best possible medical care. And yet all of the reports recently done on ageing in New Zealand haven't omitted even any reference to the LGBTI communities. And I would ask you, Roz, as a grey haired woman, just like I am, And in fact, I'd ask every grey haired person in this room to stand up. Where is it that there is? Where, when will [00:42:30] there be, at least from the Human Rights Commission? If not, in fact, from our government? Any concern? We came out of the closet in the seventies eighties and nineties, and we don't expect to be driven back into that closet in our seventies. It's time for aged dykes, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered intersex people [00:43:00] to stand together. Don't make us go back into the closet in our old age, and I think that that powerful challenge and the response to it is probably absolutely [00:43:30] the right point for me to hand back to Barry. Um, thank you very much. Uh, and just to please accept that just a little, uh, no for, uh, for your work. Um, I also just meant to say before one of the things that I've had [00:44:00] several comments and I've passed on individually, but, uh, the the power of having the NAN HR IS here and I just want to acknowledge the tremendous work of the New Zealand Commission in getting those people here it has been commented on is that some have been to many of the other art games and other human rights. It's the first time they've seen people like that. So Kia for that, thank you very much.
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