Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 08:59:33 +1000 From: The Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project Subject: New international 'Hate Crimes' mailing list and proposed 2002 conference --Please circulate-- All around the world, governments, communities, organisations, and individuals are working to spread hate, to promote violence, to batter, to kill, to silence lesbians and gays. And all around the world, individuals, communities, organisations and governments are working to bring to an end this hate, to protect and extend our human rights, to promote our health, and to ensure that the rule of law is applied equally, fairly and justly. With the Gay Games coming to Sydney in 2002 we believe this is a perfect opportunity to stage the first international conference on eliminating hate violence against lesbians and gays. The Games will bring an estimated 15,000 international visitors to Sydney, attracting not only sports men and women but also human rights activists, representatives of NGOs and Governments from throughout the world, many of whom work in or have an interest in violence prevention. At the Amsterdam Gay Games (6 August 1998), the Lesbian & Gay Anti-Violence Project (AVP) will be hosting an international consultation of human rights organisations and anti-violence projects from a wide range of countries to discuss our proposal to host an international conference on hate violence in Sydney. This will enable us to get a realistic assessment of support and likely attendance before embarking on the exercise of planning such a conference. Specifically, we are seeking to determine: Do individuals and agencies who have an interest in preventing hate violence against lesbians and gays support there being an conference in Sydney in 2002; What should the conference seek to achieve, how should it look and what should it cover; If the response to the question above is positive, the question then is; how do we organise to ensure that the conference is truly an international event, with equitable representation from developing and developed countries; Where to from here; what is the next step in terms of further consultation and how should the conference organising committee be structured. For more information see http://maya.eagles.bbs.net.au/~avp/2002 The AVP has developed a new world-wide mailing list to promote discussion and the exchange of ideas about how to prevent hate violence against lesbians and gays. A key goal of the list is also to facilitate ideas to feed into the consultation process for the proposed conference in 2002. To subscribe to the list send a message to majordomo@queer.org.au with the following line in the body: subscribe hate-crimes where is the address to which mailing list mail should go. Or to subscribe to the digest form of the list send email to: majordomo@queer.org.au with the following line in the body: subscribe hate-crimes-digest where is the address to which mailing list mail should go. For more information on the AVP visit our website at http://maya.eagles.bbs.net.au/~avp/ ---- The Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project PO Box 1178 Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Freecall 1800 637 360 +61 2 9360 6687 FAX +61 2 9380 5848 avp@eagles.bbs.net.au http://www.eagles.bbs.net.au/~avp