Our work

Our Work

Envisioning combines creative arts based approaches in documentary and participatory video with qualitative interviewing, focus groups and legal data research and analysis, to make a unique and original contribution to documenting and analyzing criminalization, asylum and resistance to criminalization within and beyond regions.

See the tabs above for each team's work and videos.

Participatory Video

Envisioning, in partnership with LGBT organizations in Africa and the Caribbean, is creating participatory video projects to document LGBT stories, histories and lives. We welcome you to share these stories and use them in your work. We would appreciate it if you let us know when you use the videos, at envision@yorku.ca.

Envisioning videographers from Caribbean partners SASOD, United and Strong, J-FLAG and UniBam and from Africa partners: SMUG, LeGaBiBo, and GALCK.

Naz Foundation India Trust in Delhi, maintains a care home for HIV positive children whose parents have died as a result of AIDS. In 2011, Envisioning gave a video workshop to the children at the Naz Care Centre as part of our work with Naz. Naz filed the petition to the High Court which eventually led to the reading down of section 377 of the Penal Code of India by the High Court of Delhi.

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Connecting Our Work

There is growing resistance to criminalization on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. As a focus for this study, Envisioning has identified key regions within the Commonwealth where decriminalization processes are underway or being initiated.

India

In 1860 the British colonial administration imposed a law criminalizing "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." From there the law was spread throughout the empire, often with the same wording and sometimes the same number, Section 377 of the Penal Code. In 2009 a historic decision of the Delhi High Court 'read down' Sec. 377 and gave inspiration to activists seeking to challenge these laws in other countries.

Africa and the Caribbean

The legacy of these British colonial laws still persists in more than half of the 78 countries where same-sex acts are criminalized. We focus on three of these countries in Africa and four in the Caribbean. The community partners are organizations that are active in working toward ending discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Canada

Canada is one of the few countries that accept refugee claims on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Yet asylum seekers face many obstacles, from the need to "prove" their LGBT identity, to lack of knowledge on the part of service providers, to homophobia, transphobia and racism. The Envisioning partners include organizations that provide direct settlement services as well as those working to promote greater knowledge and equity within the sector.

Law and Human Rights Mechanisms

This team of leading human rights lawyers identifies and examines relevant domestic laws, constitutional provisions and jurisprudence in the countries of our study. It also examines the extent to which these countries participate in international human rights provisions and how these mechanisms are used by human rights defenders.