The Centre for Gender Studies hosted the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship Lecture onLeaving No One Behind vs. Respecting Local Ownership in Development Cooperation: Conflicting Norms about LGBTQI+ Rights in Hostile Environmentson Monday 6 June 2022.
The Lecture was followed by a Q&A, chaired by Dr Lauren Wilcox, UCCGS Centre Director and a drinks reception.
Professor Stephen Brown, Professor of Political Science, University of Ottawa, is the UCCGS Leverhulme Visiting Professor for 2021-22, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge.
Sexual and gender minorities are among the most marginalized populations in many regions of the world. As such, under the Sustainable Development Goals’ overarching principle of “leave no one behind”, LGBTQI+ people can be considered priority populations for development cooperation. However, that perspective appears to be in direct conflict with the fundamental principle of national ownership of development priorities in countries that criminalize homosexuality or otherwise persecute their LGBTQI+ citizens. How can the two norms be reconciled when governments deliberately exclude specific communities? That is the conundrum that Stephen Brown explored in this talk.