Historically, conferences have created a space for marginalized communities and human rights activists to build network and collective power.
The impact of knowledge sharing and community building of conferences can be seen from the historical landmarks in human rights progress started from them.
No historical landmark, however, has ever been achieved by a single conference.
Historical Landmarks Over Time
The UN’s International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 1994 resulted in a historic Programme of Action that focused on individuals’ needs rather than demographic goals in meeting human rights standards. Although formalized in this conference, this Programme of Action was based on results on previous conferences such as World Population Conference (Bucharest, 1974), International Conference on Population (Mexico City, 1984), World Summit for Children (1990), the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992), and the World Conference on Human Rights (1993).
Just a year later at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, a historical landmark on women’s rights was achieved as they successfully established a comprehensive agenda in advancing women’s rights. The result of this conference, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, was built on political agreements reached at the previous three global conferences on women.
And let’s not forget the history of Asia Feminist LBQ Network, a network built on the foundation of five conferences celebrating the unity of Asian LBQ people – starting from 9th ILIS Conference (1986) that birthed ALN (Asia Lesbian Network) and followed by Asia Lesbian Conferences held in Thailand (1990), Japan (1992), Taiwan (1995), and Philippines (1998).
Another Step Towards Queer Feminist Future
After 29 years since the last Asia Lesbian Conference in 1998, Asia Feminist LBQ Network will be back in celebrating queer joy and building collective power among Asia LBQ communities from 26 – 29 March 2027. We would love to invite every part of the Asian LBQ community to once again reclaim our space, organise our collective power, and liberate ourselves from the oppressive system together in this celebration. Let’s work towards the queer feminist future we imagine together!
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