Emergency Response and Humanitarian Aid

Humanitarian emergencies present transgender people with unique difficulties that are poorly understood and unaddressed. Research is limited, but some reports show that being part of a sexual or gender minority–or being perceived as one–in a crisis situation can lead to harm and exclusion from services when they are most needed, including accessing life-saving food and medical services during displacement and migration, and justice for crimes experienced.

APTN co-organised the Pride in the Humanitarian System consultation, held in Bangkok in June 2018. The event brought together over 120 representatives from diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristic (SOGIESC) civil society organisations and communities, and other stakeholders in the humanitarian system including international nongovernmental organisations, United Nations agencies, and donors. Together they explored the barriers to SOGIESC inclusion, as well as the enablers of humanitarian response that take the needs of our community into account.

When COVID-19 emerged as a global health threat in early 2020, we began to closely monitor the situation and how it was affecting our community. APTN mobilised resources and support for its COVID-19 Community Support Fund. This fund provides grants to community groups, and defenders of trans and gender diverse human rights, across Asia and the Pacific.