For lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) women in South Africa, the barriers to justice, healthcare, safety and equality are often experienced at the most local level. But earlier this year, those realities travelled far beyond South Africa, reaching one of the world’s most important human rights spaces: the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
For Jamilla Jade Madingwane, Executive Director of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), the journey was a powerful reminder that grassroots activism and international advocacy are not separate worlds.
FEW was established as a community-based organisation responding to the realities faced by Black lesbian and queer women in South Africa. Over time, its work has expanded into strategic advocacy, movement building and engagement with regional and international human rights mechanisms.
Earlier this year, FEW responded to a global call for submissions from the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. FEW’s submission documented the lived experiences of LBQ people in South Africa, including the barriers they continue to encounter when accessing justice, healthcare, protection and equal treatment.
For Madingwane, the submission was about more than contributing to a report.
“It was an opportunity to ensure that the experiences of our communities informed an international human rights process that has the potential to influence governments and strengthen accountability,” she says.
The submission formed part of a broader global consultation, with contributions from communities and organisations across the world. The evidence helped inform the Independent Expert’s report, which was subsequently presented to the Human Rights Council.
Taking Grassroots Realities into Global Spaces
Madingwane then travelled to Geneva to participate in LBQ Advocacy Week alongside activists from different countries and regions.
The week included advocacy training, strategy sessions, meetings with UN experts and opportunities to observe Human Rights Council proceedings. For activists navigating these international spaces, the experience provided both practical knowledge and an opportunity to build connections across movements.
“It reinforced that while our contexts may differ, the struggles for equality, bodily autonomy, safety, and justice are shared across borders,” Madingwane says.
One of the most significant moments came during the Interactive Dialogue with the UN Independent Expert. The formal Human Rights Council session allows the Independent Expert to present findings and recommendations, while civil society organisations can respond through oral statements and interventions.
These contributions become part of the official UN record and provide civil society with an opportunity to place community perspectives directly into international discussions.
Madingwane delivered the oral statement as a representative of Outright International, but the words were not hers alone.
She was speaking on behalf of a wider collective of LBQ activists who had developed the statement together, drawing on experiences and analysis from different countries.
“I was carrying the collective analysis, experiences, and advocacy of activists from multiple countries who had contributed to shaping our message,” she says.
Ninety Seconds, and Countless Conversations
The final statement lasted approximately 90 seconds.
But behind those 90 seconds was an extensive collaborative process involving multiple drafts and conversations about language, representation and which experiences needed to be centred.
“We worked through multiple drafts, at least four different versions, carefully refining both the substance and the delivery,” Madingwane explains. “We discussed what message needed to be communicated, whose experiences needed to be centred, and how to find the ‘hook’, the opening that would immediately capture the attention of those listening in the chamber.”
For Madingwane, that process was itself an example of feminist advocacy in practice.
The activists came from different countries, movements and advocacy traditions. They did not necessarily begin with the same perspectives or priorities, but through collaboration they created a statement that reflected their collective concerns.
“This was never simply about editing. It was participation, care, and intentionality,” she says.
“I was carrying the voices…”
Standing before government representatives, UN officials and civil society organisations, Madingwane says she felt honoured by the opportunity. But she was also acutely aware that she was not speaking solely as the Executive Director of FEW.
“I was carrying the voices, experiences, ideas, and labour of every activist who had contributed to creating that statement,” she says.
The experience reinforced an important lesson about advocacy: while one person may stand behind the microphone, meaningful advocacy is rarely an individual effort.
For FEW, the collaborative approach also reflected the organisation’s broader LBQ feminist advocacy principles, including shared leadership, collective decision-making, respect for different perspectives and ensuring that people most affected by injustice help shape the narratives about their own lives.
From Geneva Back to South Africa
Perhaps the most important part of the experience came after the statement was delivered.
For Madingwane, international advocacy only matters if it ultimately connects back to the communities whose experiences made that advocacy necessary in the first place.
“As someone who has spent more than ten years building a grassroots organisation, this experience was deeply affirming,” she says. “It demonstrated that grassroots activism and international advocacy are not separate worlds but interconnected spaces that strengthen one another.”
“The stories we hear in our communities deserve to be heard in Geneva, and the commitments made in Geneva must ultimately translate into meaningful protection, equality, and justice for the communities we return to.”
The trip also left FEW with stronger partnerships and greater confidence in engaging international human rights mechanisms. Madingwane says the experience has opened new possibilities for the organisation, including plans to facilitate training for FEW and its constituency on UN mechanisms.
For a grassroots organisation born from the lived realities of Black lesbian and queer women in South Africa, that represents a significant evolution.
The microphone may have been in Geneva, but the message began much closer to home.
“The oral statement may have lasted just ninety seconds,” Madingwane reflects, “but the collaboration, solidarity, and shared purpose behind those words will continue to shape my advocacy long after leaving Geneva.”
And that may be the clearest lesson from FEW’s journey: global human rights conversations do not begin in grand chambers. They begin with people telling the truth about what is happening in their communities, organising around those realities, and insisting that their voices belong wherever decisions about their rights are being made.
