Celebrating the impact of the United Nations’ LGBT video campaign.
Celebration is taking place in New York City, as the UN Human Rights Office is celebrating the first year of the global campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality. On September 10th, they released “UN Free & Equal: One Billion Rising” which is a video showing the impact this campaign has had to date, since it first launched in July 2013.
“In the past year, more than a billion people around the world have been exposed to Free & Equal’s message of equality and acceptance. Millions of them have watched and shared campaign videos and read and posted materials online,” said Charles Radcliffe, Chief of Global Issues at the UN Human Rights Office.
The Free & Equal campaign originally began at a press conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, to raise awareness of the discrimination LGBT people have, and still continue to have faced. This campaign has since then released over 50 pieces of original content, which include electronic postcards and fact sheets in all UN languages, as well as two dozen original videos—two of which are the most viewed UN Human rights videos to date.
These videos are among the top most viewed videos that have ever been produced by the United Nations. The UN Human Rights office published the first official report on violence and discrimination against the LGBT community in December 2011, which stated more than 77 countries still criminalize same sex relationships.
The discrimination against LGBT people within the work place, education and health sectors is widespread in even more regions and continues to create violence including physical, sexual and even targeted killings.
“At a time when the rights of LGBT people being challenged in some countries, the campaign has helped to raise awareness of the stigma, discrimination and violence that continues to affect LGBT communities in all parts of the world.”