United Nations Free and Equal Campaign Report
AMIE TAYLOR TINGTING PAN THEA HALE
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR ) launched UN Free & Equal in 2013 ; a global public awareness campaign , for the equal rights and the fair treatment of lesbian , gay , bi , trans and intersex ( LGBTI ) people across the world . The main objective of the campaign is to raise awareness of homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination . This report focuses on UN Free & Equal and assesses its relevance , effectiveness , efficiency , and impact , concentrating on the campaign in 2020 .
RELEVANCE : The UN Free & Equal campaign aims to eradicate misconceptions and negative stereotypes of LGBTI people while promoting equal rights and fair treatment of the LGBTI community . The campaign adopts an educational format ; producing informative materials to achieve the aim of tackling negative attitudes towards LGBTI people . UN Free & Equal is run on an international level and a national level with more than 30 individual countries running their own campaigns since the launch in 2013 . Countries where there are " new opportunities for advancing the protection of the rights of LGBTI people ", have been prioritised by the campaign , to ensure its relevance ( Barcia and Kagumire , 2021 , pp . 38 ). At the national level , the campaigns have been tailored to ensure suitability for different cultural contexts . For example , in 2017 the OHCHR launched a Bollywood style pop video called ‘ The Welcome ’ aimed at challenging negative stereotypes of LGBTI people in India
( Radcliffe , 2017 ). The adaptation of campaign strategies for different countries helps to ensure the appropriateness of the campaign in relation to the citizens it is addressing .
The campaign ’ s target audience was identified as policymakers and opinion shapers , for example , government officials , civil servants and diplomats ( Barcia and Kagumire , 2021 ). This targeted audience is important because one of the main aims of UN Free & Equal is to promote the rights of the LGBTI community , therefore targeting decision-makers is crucial for change . The UN Free & Equal also targets the " moveable middle ", those who are neither strongly opposed nor strongly in favour of LGBTI progress and who potentially would be open to an appeal for support ( Barcia and Kagumire , 2021 ). Arguably this is effective because it is the " moveable middle " that are the most likely to change their opinions in favour of the LGBTI community and therefore support the campaign . The targeted audience is therefore relevant and appropriate to the campaign . The campaign can target these audiences through the support of celebrities , the UN Free & Equal equality champions help spread awareness and encourage widespread support among the public . Due to the campaign being run primarily through social media platforms , Free & Equal depends on its audience to engage with , share and promote its social media messages and content . This is an appropriate way for the campaign to be run due to its large size and in relation to the target audience . Overall , the UN Free & Equal campaign can be
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