Mariana Winocur, Communications Officer at ARC International
Mariana Winocur is a communicator consultant and a journalist. She has been working as a senior specialist in the design and implementation of communications strategies with a gender and a human rights perspective. Mariana has served several women’s rights organizations as communications coordinator and consultant. She also publishes stories, articles, and reports in the media.
The International Dialogues hosted by ARC International with local partners aim at gathering activists, scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders from around the world to share experiences and challenges in advancing rights for LGBTIQ persons. Dialogues are safe, protected and private spaces, where human rights defenders can learn from each other’s experiences and strategies, as well as build transnational solidarity and alliances. Dialogues are also an opportunity to talk about and exchange best practices, knowledge and strategies to improve the exercise of human rights.
In 2019, the International Dialogue was organized by ARC with The Centre for Health Law, Ethics and Technology (CHLET) at O.P. Jindal Global University in New Delhi. This year ‘s theme encouraged speakers and participants to share their “best practice” experiences in international law, domestic litigation and apology/reparation processes to advance human rights related to sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
Language was an important issue during the Dialogue. Words and the way people express themselves can assist LGBTIQ activists in exercising their human rights or, conversely, put their freedom and their lives at risk. In that sense, there were some presentations I want to highlight, in terms of revealing how language plays out in the lives of LGBTIQ persons.
Language and how to interpret diversity. Argentine activist and scholar Blas Radi shared with the audience how the Yogyakarta Principles helped inform the Argentine Gender Identity Law. He highlighted how the definition of gender identity in the law was based on the YPs, and showed how the language of what gender identity is, helped better capture the diversity of human experience. He also highlighted the resistance that law still generates towards a proper understanding of the concept of “gender identity”.