Deadline: 15 May 2020
The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) has announced a call for applications for 5 Week Online “Advocacy And Monitoring Of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity And Expression (SOGIE)” Course.
This online course will introduce participants to terminologies, intervention areas and advocacy strategies on SOGIE, human rights and bodily autonomy and integrity related issues. The course will equip participants with knowledge and skills to facilitate dialogues on equal rights, at the community level, with a long term view of challenging mindsets and shifting public opinion on SOGIE.
Established 16 years ago, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) was created to galvanise a movement of progressive civil society actors to advance a human rights-based response to HIV in Southern and East Africa. ARASA set out to build a cadre of civil society organisations in the region to raise awareness and understanding by both communities and policy makers about the need for human rights to be at the centre of national HIV (and subsequently TB) responses and to strongly advocate for a human rights-based response.
ARASA has successfully raised and increased the visibility of sensitive and contentious human rights issues such as the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, sex workers, transgender people, men who have sex with men and people who use drugs. This has contributed significantly to enhanced efforts by governmental and regional bodies, to mainstream human rights in HIV and TB policy and programming and has contributed towards the removal of legal and policy barriers in several countries in the region.
Why SOGIE?
Systematic sexual and reproductive rights violations, especially against women and key populations, fuelled by barriers embedded in laws, policies, the economy, and in social norms and values—especially gender inequality— persist across southern and east Africa and, in some countries are escalating. These include, laws that restrict women’s and adolescents’ access to health services by requiring third-party authorisation, laws that require service providers to report personal information, laws that criminalise same-sex relationships and sex work and criminal laws that prohibit provision of and access to abortion services. The situation is fuelled and exacerbated by new waves of conservatism and fundamentalism that amplify state-sponsored violence and criminalisation and undermine individual agency. Punitive laws, policies and practices remain the “norm”, with severe implications for the right to health of individuals and responses to health by countries.
This online course on SOGIE will ensure that participants:
- Attain knowledge on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) in relation to Sexual Reproductive Health and bodily autonomy and integrity.
- Build your understanding of why it is necessary to have inclusive policies and SOGIE friendly interventions.
- Create, monitor and advocate for holistic programming on SOGIE, including removing legal and structural barriers that impede SOGIE.
The course will start on 18 May 2020 and end on 19 June 2020.
For more information, visit https://www.arasa.info/blog-news-details/call-for-5-week-online-course-applications-sogie-course
