New Zealand Wins 2018 ILGA World Conference Bid

ILGA Oceania

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A collaborative bid of three (3) major New Zealand LGBTI organisations, i.e. Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand (ITANZ), Tiwhanawhana Trust, and Rainbow Youth, has successfully won the bid to hold the next ILGA World Conference in 2018.

The unanimous decision was made at the final day of the current 2016 Thailand ILGA World Conference (Friday, 02 December 2016). Mani Mitchell, bid representative and ITANZ convenor, said “It is a wonderful milestone and I am feeling very proud”.

The 2018 ILGA World conference will mark the 40th anniversary of ILGA World (formed 1978), the largest and oldest United Nations (UN) Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex) people. ILGA’s World conferences are held rotationally in different countries around the world, hosting hundreds of international LGBTI organisational representatives, like this year’s Thailand ILGA World conference which attracted over 600 delegates.

Until now, an ILGA World conference has never been hosted in ILGA’s Oceania region, i.e. Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Rawa Karetai, the 2016-2018 ILGA Oceania co-convenor, said “We were very pleased to have supported this successful bid and look forward to welcoming ILGA World to our region with open arms, as well as the many LGBTI activists which will be populating Wellington in 2018”. He went onto say, “This is a historic moment as this is the first time an ILGA World Conference will be in the Oceania Region.”.

Renato Sabbadini, ILGA World’s Executive Director, “The fact that the first ILGA World Conference in Oceania will coincide with ILGA’s 40th anniversary, at the antipodes of its origin [Coventry, UK], cannot be overstated. It is not only a testament to the incredible growth of ILGA World in the last four decades, but also to its genuine ability to embrace all cultures and let its own spirit be shaped by them.”