OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️

they/them| Civil Rights Activist | Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Award Laureate | Co-Founder @equalnamibia | Fighting for what’s right, is always worth it. ✊🏽

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

To every queer youth watching: you are deserving of every chance and opportunity to pursue and achieve your dreams and destiny. You belong.

Namibia, this one is for you. Together, we will build an #equalNamibia for us all.
🏳️‍⚧️🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈

[Kofi Annan Foundation @KofiAnnanFdn]

Congratulations to @omarvanreenen, the 2024 Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize winner!

For Omar, defending democracy is a calling: "Defending democracy is not just a choice for me, but it is a necessity, and it is the calling of my generation."

Discover part of their finalist video, in which they emphasize that fighting for democracy requires an unwavering, long-term commitment. ⤵

#YoungActivists #Democracy #FutureofDemocracy #KANextGenPrize

[lets sit by the ❀ grass ❀ and talk @fatsotshego555]

QUEERNESS

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

@tarathinks @SpokespersonRSA @jbp_local @JonathanBallPub @PresidencyZA .@ExclusiveBooks, we want copies in Namibia. Please stock your shelves. Coalition building is desperately needed here 🫶🏼

[🦋 @michstirling]

south africa is the first country in the world to constitutionally and explicitly ban discrimination against sexual orientation. and it is not the work of any white individual.

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

📍

[stream bliss by tyla @streamblisstyla]

Seeing other African countries claim that the only reason why gay marriage is legal in our country is because of white people is soo funny to me because it was literally not during apartheid 😭

[Citizen TV Kenya @citizentvkenya]

Win for transgenders in Kenya as Court allows gender marker changes on official documents https://t.co/befanLCPwM

[Pop Base @PopBase]

Today marks the 78th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), during which more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled and over 400 villages were destroyed to establish the State of Israel.

[Sirr Ninga @SiRRNingaa]

There’s something deeply unsettling about watching the architects of a legal framework now distance themselves from it, while its afterlives continue to discipline, criminalize, and endanger queer people across much of the Global South.

[Spain MFA @SpainMFA]

🇪🇸🏳️‍🌈 Spain has topped the @ILGAEurope Rainbow Index on LGBTQ+ rights in 🇪🇺 for the first time in its history — three years on from the adoption and implementation of Law 4/2023 on transgender rights and LGBTQ+ protections. 

#SpainIsLGBTQ+

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

La responsabilidad pública también implica la obligación moral de no mirar hacia otro lado.

Es un honor otorgar la Orden del Mérito Civil a una voz que sostiene la conciencia del mundo: @FranceskAlbs, Relatora Especial de la ONU en el territorio palestino ocupado.

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

Zambia rejects US health deal (and rightfully so) over “sovereignty” claims; but allows China to cancel a major human rights and tech conference in Lusaka due to Taiwanese participation.

When African governments cry “unAfrican” “cultural norms” “sovereignty”…Don’t believe them

[RightsCon @rightscon]

It is with heavy hearts that we share: RightsCon will not proceed in Zambia or online.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Last night, Israeli forces intercepted and boarded a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza in international waters off the coast of Greece — unlawfully detaining more than 175 people, including several New Yorkers.

My team has been in direct contact with State and Federal partners as we work to confirm the whereabouts and conditions of these New Yorkers.

This is a brazen violation of international law. Those detained must be released.

[Mary Lawlor @MaryLawlorhrds]

I welcome the release of 8 #EACOP youth activists in #Uganda after their conviction on 17 April. I call on the Gov to desist from any further retaliatory action against them. Climate change is a human rights crisis. Those calling for mitigation it are #HRDs @geneva_uganda

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

Namibia’s current Sodomy Law, which Government is appealing to the Supreme Court to uphold, also allows arrest for just the “suspicion of committing the act without evidence” to be grounds for arrest. This arrest can even be carried out by a private citizen w/o a warrant. INSANE

[GHOne TV @ghonetv]

Under the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, anyone who suspects someone of exhibiting LGBTQ+ traits is required to report them to assembly members, DCEs, or the police... - Rev. John Ntim Fordjour (MP, Assin South)

#StateOfAffairs
#GHOneNews #EIBNetwork
#GHOneTV #NewsAlert

[Mia Skylar @MiaSkylar]

La comunidad LGBT africana es algo de lo que no se habla NADA.

Cada vez que indago en la historia de cualquier activista LGBT africano me quedo sin palabras…

Esta gente se juega la vida con cada mera aparición pública que hagan, y aún así dan la cara día a día.

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

Well done 🇧🇼! Scrapping colonial-era laws is what true liberation looks like. The @parliament_nam reaction to court verdicts was to double down, nullify rulings, wreck our democracy & pass unconstitutional anti-LGBTQI+ bills. SWAPO lost all claims to being a “liberation movement”

[NBC Digital News @NBCDigitalNews]

Botswana has officially removed old wording from its law books that criminalises same-sex relationships.

The change removes parts of the law of the Penal Code that had banned same-sex relationships and that carried prison sentences of up to seven years.

Although the country's High Court struck down the law in 2019, and the Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in 2021, the wording had remained in the country’s written laws.

In March this year, the government officially removed those sections from the legal books.

Emil Xamro Seibeb
#nbcdigitalnews #nbcDSTV282 #nbcGOtv20 #nbcPlusApp

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

Pop Base official 🥰🏳️‍🌈

[Pop Base @PopBase]

Botswana has officially removed colonial-era laws that criminalized same-sex relations from their Penal Code.

The High Court first ruled these laws unconstitutional in 2019, and the Court of Appeal upheld the decision in 2021.

[Mambaonline @Mambaonline]

South Africa’s out and proud Deputy Minister Steve Letsike just visited what is said will become the world’s largest LGBTQ2+ monument. Find out more here. ⬇️ https://t.co/dopXdDL45s

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

Economic cost of homophobia in Kenya is $1.3 billion per year: https://t.co/YWsRalFpYz

Economic cost of the anti-LGBTQ bill in Uganda is $1.6 billion per year: https://t.co/YWsRalFpYz

The true cost; is less bills passed to higher wages, eradicate corruption, and build schools.

[CITI FM 97.3 @Citi973]

A sponsor of the Anti LGBTQ+ bill and MP for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, argues that African countries that have passed similar laws have not suffered economic consequences.

He urged the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to fast-track the process for the bill’s passage and assent by President John Dramani Mahama.

#CitiNewsroom #LGBTQ #Politics #GhanaNews

[OVR 🇳🇦🏳️‍🌈♀️ @omarvanreenen]

In my article I wrote about how regardless that our government is led by women; elite politics increasingly leaned toward populist moralism. Our leaders are still ready to throw marginalized communities under the bus to stir up culture wars. https://t.co/vQwhxFYVQi

[Observer Namibia @ObserverNamibia]

BAN| The Office of the Prime Minister has issued a directive barring government institutions from attending the Namibian Disability, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference scheduled to begin tomorrow.

The directive was issued on behalf of prime minister Elijah Ngurare and