UN FREE & EQUAL CAMPAIGN IMPACT REPORT 2020 1 IN TRO UN Free & Equal is a global United Nations campaign for equal rights and the fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bi, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people everywhere. Launched in South Africa in July 2013, Other campaign initiatives include a global the campaign is led by the United Nations film festival, a rainbow crosswalk in front Human Rights Office. In its first seven of UN Headquarters, and the world’s first years, the UN Free & Equal campaign set of postage stamps for LGBT equality. has generated a stream of widely shared UN Free & Equal has also supported materials – including more than 90 videos, national level campaigns and events in hundreds of shareable e-postcards, dozens more than 30 countries around the world of thematic campaigns and a series of since its launch. Despite the Covid-19 popular, plain-language fact sheets, with pandemic, 11 national campaigns were hundreds of millions of views and shares of active in 2020: Albania, Brazil, Cabo campaign content as a whole across social Verde, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, media, television, news media and public Ecuador, Mongolia, Panama, Serbia, displays and events. Several campaign Timor-Leste and Viet Nam. videos – including “Be There” and the Bollywood-inspired “The Welcome” – rank among the most watched videos ever produced by the United Nations. 2 Launched: 26 JULY 2 013 Overall aim: Increased awareness of and support for equal rights and fair treatment of LGBTI people everywhere. MAI We do this by: Implementation: > supporting UN-system public Implementation is led by the United Nations Human Rights Office with support from UN advocacy on the human rights partners (including UN Resident Coordinators of LGBTI people at the national and UN country teams), as well as national and municipal governments, and civil society and global level; and organizations. In 2020, UN partners at the national level included the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Joint United Nations > contributing to increasing Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), public support for diverse the United Nations Development Programme societies that are inclusive of (UNDP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), LGBTI people, and for stronger the United Nations High Commissioner for legal protections against Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United violence and discrimination Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women based on sexual orientation, and the World Health Organization (WHO). gender identity and sex characteristics. 3 02 2020 AT A GLANCE 2020 was a challenging year for the UN Free & Equal campaign, both at the global and national level. As the magnitude of the pandemic became apparent in early 2020, the campaign quickly put in place new strategic priorities and procedures to make it possible for national-level teams to have the flexibility and support 2 0 they needed to free up human and financial resources to pandemic prevention and response. This was particularly important because the LGBTI population has been left behind in the response to the pandemic and in some countries also faced negative impacts as a result of Covid-19 related restrictions. Despite these challenges, in 2020 the UN Free & Equal campaign: > Implemented 11 national campaigns that continued advocating for LGBTI equality at country level over the year. Most campaigns worked to incorporate the specific human rights concerns of the LGBTI community into United Nations and national governments’ Covid-19 prevention and response, and called for inclusion and equality in rebuilding efforts as a part of their advocacy. > Produced and launched two thematic campaigns, with videos that were seen by 15.4 million people, and several social media toolkits that were distributed across the United Nations system, including one calling for the inclusion of LGBTI people in Covid-19 response. All in all, social media posts received more than 3.6 million likes, shares and comments across our social media channels. 4 THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN 5 UN FREE & EQUAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA Follow us: @free.equal @free_equal 15. 4 @free.equal million video views 3.6 million interactions with posts 208,000 million impressions followers, up from 49 187,000 in 2019 6 Gender balance: Facebook 56% men audience 43% women 1% other Top countries: 1. India 2. Nepal 3. Philippines 4. Cambodia 5. Indonesia 6. USA 7. Brazil 8. Mexico 9. Thailand 10. Malaysia Top Age Group(s): Youth aged 18 – 24 and young adults aged 25 – 34 Gender balance: Instagram 46% men audience 54% women Top countries: 1. United States 2. India 3. Brazil 4. Argentina 5. Venezuela Top Age Group: Young adults aged 25 – 34 Twitter audience In 2020, we had more than 5 5m+ million views on Twitter. Since January 2020, Twitter no longer provides geographic or other information on our audience on Twitter. 7 THEMATIC CA MPAIGNS In 2020, the UN Free & Equal campaign created two flagship thematic campaigns, featuring videos accompanied by dedicated landing sites with more information and practical, real-life advice on how allies can stand up for the rights of LGBTI people in their communities. 8 BREAKING THE SILENCE This year, the UN Free & Equal campaign marked International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia with a thematic live- action music video, landing page, and three macros that invite the audience to break the silence and speak out for LGBTI equality. The uplifting and motivating video has an engaging soundtrack and footage, highlights the diversity of the LGBTI community and invites viewers to become allies. The thematic campaign achieved great results with over 6.1 million video views and more than 62,000 interactions with posts across social media platforms. All multimedia products were rolled out in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. 62.3k Interactions 6 .1m Video views 9 846k Interactions 7. 4 m Video views SAFE HOMES FOR LGBTIQ+ YOUTH In December, we marked Human Rights Day with a thematic campaign calling for safe homes for young LGBTIQ+ people and the elimination of youth homelessness. The content was created and rolled out in partnership with True Colors United, a civil society organization that addresses youth homelessness, and supported by the famous singer Cyndi Lauper. The thematic campaign included an emotive animated video presented and voiced by Cyndi Lauper, a series of 12 macros and a dedicated landing page on the UN Free & Equal campaign website. The video premiered during Cyndi Lauper’s annual “Home for The Holidays” concert with Cher, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Whoopi Goldberg and many other celebrities. The campaign launch was covered by major news outlets and television shows. The campaign assets were rolled out in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. The video was our most seen of the year with 7.4 million views and over 846,000 interactions with posts across social media platforms. 10 NEW FACTSHEET United Nations Free & Equal ON LGBTIQ+ YOUTH YOUTH HOMELESSNESS What does it mean to experience homelessness? Experiencing homelessness means not having stable, safe and appropriate housing, nor the means and ability HOMELESSNESS of obtaining it. Being LGBTIQ+, young and without a stable home Young LGBTIQ+ people around leaving home starts a vicious obtaining it. Regardless of the form the world are more likely to face circle of vulnerability to yet more it takes, it’s a devastating experience disapproval, exclusion, and rejection discrimination and violence. with serious negative effects on As part of this thematic campaign, we created a from their families and communities, Being homeless can take various the physical, mental and emotional which can force them to leave home. forms. It is generally defined as not health, development, well-being and Given young people’s dependence having stable, safe and appropriate the overall life-trajectory of those new fact sheet on LGBTIQ+ youth homelessness. on family and community networks, housing nor the means and ability of affected. The factsheet provides key information and statistics on Are young LGBTIQ+ people more likely to not have a home? While comprehensive data on that a disproportionate percent homelessness. A report from West the issue of LGBTIQ+ youth homelessness worldwide, youth homelessness is lacking of young people without a home Africa listed homelessness as one of around the world, research identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans, the serious issues faced by lesbian, confirms that homelessness intersex or queer. The likelihood gay, bi, trans and queer youth living identifies root causes, highlights how some young disproportionately impacts LGBTIQ+ of homelessness is especially high there. A similar report from Nepal youth. Research from Australia, for young transgender people. suggests that young transgender Canada, the European Union, the Data from Europe suggests women and young lesbian, gay, bi persons who are from ethnic or racial minorities or United Kingdom and the United that intersex people are at a and trans people in general are at States has for instance shown particularly disproportionate risk of who are indigenous are disproportionately affected, significant risk of home instability. Australia: Canada & European Union: and provides recommendations for the general the United States: Lesbian, gay and bi people of trans youth aged 18-24 are at least twice as likely to experienced some form of United Nations Free & Equal of homeless youth identify public and for Governments. It is easily accessible become homeless as lesbian, gay, bi, trans, homelessness queer or two-spirit Nepal: of intersex youth aged 18-24 on the UN Free & Equal campaign website and Lesbian, gay, bi and trans United Kingdom: experienced some form of youth especially trans women homelessness are at significant risk of of homeless youth identify formatted for easy printing by anyone interested.