var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};Ricky Martin will be discussing homophobia and “combatting violence and discrimination against LGBT persons” with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, LGBT Human Rights Defenders, and other international notables. Watch the event this afternoon live, right here!
Ricky Martin is currently starring in “Evita” on Broadway, and is an active LGBT activist and does a great deal of charity work.
Tanya Domi, The New Civil Rights Movement’s Deputy Editor, will be on the scene, covering the event — look forward to more on this extraordinary event!
The program schedule, which begins at 3:15 PM, is below, courtesy of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission:
Program and More Information
3:15 Arrival
3:25 Welcome remarks by His Excellency Herman Schaper, Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations
3:30 Keynote speech by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
3:40 Statement by French Minister for Women’s Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem
3:45 Discussion with Yvonne Chaka Chaka
3:55 Interactive dialogue with three human rights defenders on combatting violence and discrimination against LGBT persons:
· Blas Radi, the first person in Argentina to successfully change his birth certificate and national identity papers to reflect his gender identity. He also was one of the drafters of the gender identity recognition law that passed earlier this year, which is widely recognized as one of the most progressive laws for transgender people in the world.
· Olena Shevchenko, co-founder and director of Insight in Ukraine, where she has led an international campaign to prevent the passage of Draft Law No. 8711 that would criminalize any reference to or expression of homosexuality with up to five years imprisonment.
· Gift Trapence, who’s work to advance human rights has resulted in a commitment from the Government of Malawi to temporarily suspend the sodomy law and commence a period of public discussion to evaluate the feasibility of the law’s repeal. If the government of Malawi were to decriminalize sodomy, it would become the first African country to do so since 1998.
4:15 Open discussion
4.50 Special video message from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
4:55 Musical performance by Yvonne Chaka Chaka
5:00 Ends
Here’s the video — other programming will appear until 3:15 PM ET:
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http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1
Image: Ricky Martin in “Evita,” via Facebook