Colombia Diversa
2025 Winner
Colombia
Colombia Diversa’s Story
Behind closed doors, members of the Afro-Colombian LGBTIQ+ community meet with faith leaders. There is tension here. Colombia is considered to have one of Latin America’s strongest legal frameworks in defending LGBTIQ+ rights. Unfortunately, protections are not often enforced, and the church, a core centre of community for many Colombians, has not always been welcoming.
The meeting is one of a series hosted through Colombia Diversa’s Building Bridges for Peacebuilding initiative. The aim is to create safe spaces where LGBTIQ+ community members and Christian leaders from different denominations can find collective understanding. The initiative has encouraged some pastors to welcome the participation of marginalized congregations for the first time. For some other church leaders, the initiative builds on their opposition to violence against LGBTQ+ communities as a step toward embracing same-sex marriage.
The largest organization of its kind in the country, Colombia Diversa is founded on recognition of our common humanity as the first step toward understanding. The organization believes democracy is strengthened by differences, and pluralism urges people to go beyond mere tolerance to real inclusion. Its research, advocacy and litigation work has defended the rights of LGBTIQ+ people since 2004. And the organization has helped secure landmark judicial victories, such as the historic decision to include LGBTIQ+ victims in the 2016 Colombian peace agreement, which has helped ensure the testimonies of LGBTIQ+ survivors were heard before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace—the transitional justice mechanism through which combatants who participated in the Colombian armed conflict were investigated and tried.
Partnerships are another way Colombia Diversa increases the participation of marginalized groups in the legal system. The organization has found solidarity in coalitions such as the GPAZ Alliance (Gender in Peace Working Group), which advocates to include gender perspective in peace agreements, and the 1325 Resolution Coalition, which promotes the women, peace and security agenda in Colombia.
Regionally, Colombia Diversa led the building of the LGBTI+ Litigants Network of the Americas to connect communities for co-operation in human rights. On the global stage, the organization has appeared before the United Nations Security Council to shed light on the impact of war on LGBTIQ+ people—the first Security Council briefing on LGBTIQ+ issues in a conflict setting.
For Colombia Diversa, it was just one more step toward its ultimate goal of a pluralist Colombia where diversity is valued and protected, and everyone can live freely and authentically without fear of discrimination or persecution.
