Our vision
IGLYO’s vision is a world where we, young people in all our diversity, are able to express and define our own sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions, and are able to participate fully in all aspects of life, rise to our full potential, and enjoy respect and positive recognition.
Our mission
Run by us, young people, and for young people, IGLYO is an international membership-based umbrella organisation that aims to empower its Members in better representation of LGBTQ youth and student issues. This includes being the voice of our Members to international bodies, institutions, organisations and promoting co-operation and joint strategies.
Our values
We promote and respect:
• Human Rights
• Diversity
• The active participation of youth
• Equality
• Individual freedoms and liberties
• Dialogue
• Impartiality and independence
• Just and balanced representation
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Integrity
We combat and advocate against:
• Homo-, lesbo-, bi-, trans- and queerphobia
• Heteronormativity and Heterosexism
• All forms of exclusion, discrimination and persecution
Our core focuses
While we work across a number of different thematic areas, identifying the priority areas enables us to focus our work and resources strategically. This focus is determined by IGLYO’s Members.
IGLYO’s core focuses are:
• Education
• Health
• Human Rights
• Inter-religious and intercultural dialogue
Activities
IGLYO seeks to reach its objectives by collaborating with different institutions at different levels. It carries out its work by collaborating with the Council of Europe and the European Commission in order to promote the participation of young LGBT people and their rights. IGLYO works to influence these institutions to support and include LGBT youth in their policies and lobbies, ensuring the voice of LGBT youth is represented in these institutions’ working priorities.
However, a substantial amount of IGLYO’s work is carried out by working with its member organizations. Every year IGLYO organizes an international conference or study session with a particular theme (such as Media, Health, Education, etc) reflecting the needs to be tackled by and for LGBT youth. At these conferences, up to 50 people gather and work together for a week on the theme of the event and discuss and exchanges personal experience in the field of the LGBT youth work and activism. Intercultural learning, exchanging new skills and international networking are typical examples of what IGLYO provides to its members. By doing this we aim to strengthen the capacities of member organizations and stimulate cross-border cooperation and joint projects.
IGLYO is a major source of information relevant for local youth groups and organizations. IGLYO’s work aims to build the capacity of its member organizations by providing spaces where information could be exchanged and shared. Through the IGLYO network, member organizations could also discuss best practices and liaise to develop joint projects, which target the organizations’ developmental plans (whether on a local, national and/or regional/transnational level).
IGLYO is involved in political work. It participates within youth structures on European and International levels. IGLYO is, amongst others, a full member of the European Youth Forum and ILGA-Europe (the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association) and co-operates with the Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Council of Europe. Through its different events, IGLYO analyzes existing policies on LGBT issues and contributes to the estabilishment of more efficient strategies to fight the discrimination faced by LGBT youth. The spaces created by these events help IGLYO in developing a wider and stronger LGBT youth network on an international level, promoting values of acceptance and non-discrimination as well as increasing the participation of young LGBT people in the democratic decision-making process in their respective countries. Our cooperation with faith based organizations, but also with student organizations (such as OBESSU and ESIB) are an essential element of relating IGLYO with organizations working in different fields.
