The Human Dignity Trust seeks a new Trustee to join its Board. As well as being personally committed to defend the human rights of LGBT people, candidates will bring senior third-sector strategic communications expertise in an international setting. This could have been gained in the global human rights or law and justice sector. (Deadline: 2 March)
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Formed in 2011, the Human Dignity Trust is the only organisation working globally to use strategic litigation to eradicate laws that criminalise LGBT people. Based in London, its team of lawyers, researchers, and communications specialists work with activists and lawyers across the world. The Trust also provides technical assistance to governments seeking to reform their sexual offences legislation and enact protective laws.
The charity is led by the needs of local activists, providing them at their request with sophisticated technical legal assistance and related support. Its work is supported by a network of 25 of the world’s largest law firms and leading UK and international human rights barristers, who have provided the Trust and its partners with over £20m worth of pro bono technical legal assistance.
The Human Dignity Trust works in countries spanning all regions of the world with LGBT activists, lawyers, parliamentarians and government officials, to challenge or reform discriminatory laws that often date back to the colonial era. It has worked in over 25 jurisdictions across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Pacific and the Caribbean.
There are still 67 countries around the world in which it is a criminal offence to engage in private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity. Half of these are Commonwealth countries.
The charity supports court cases that:
It supports law reform efforts to make sexual offences legislation human rights compliant, and to enact hate crime and equal opportunities legislation, impacting a wide range of marginalised groups including LGBT people, women, children and persons with disabilities.
The Human Dignity Trust seeks a new Trustee who will use their skills and experience to provide effective governance to the Board. They will also use their strategic communications knowledge to guide the charity's experienced communications team to make strategic decisions and expand its reach to help support the Trust’s legal work, transforming the lives of people in the LGBT community across the globe.
Trustees help to examine, challenge and support the operational delivery and strategic direction of the charity's major work and programmes. They bring an independent perspective to the work of Human Dignity Trust, with specific subject matter expertise.
The Board of Trustees ensures that the activities of the charity meet public benefit requirements.
The broad areas of the work of the Board include:
The Human Dignity Trust seeks a new Trustee to join its Board who will be able to further increase the charity's reach and impact, along with the other Board members. As well as being personally committed to defend the human rights of LGBT people, candidates will bring senior third-sector strategic communications expertise in an international setting. This could have been gained in the global human rights or law and justice sector.
Candidates will have had significant experience of engaging in and overseeing strategic communications, and should have an understanding of crisis communication in particular contexts. The charity works on sensitive cases in jurisdictions around the world where consensual, same-sex intimacy is criminalised and the cases it supports come with media attention and scrutiny. Law reform efforts with governments likewise often require a complementary public education campaign to create an enabling environment for the legal change. Therefore, the communications team is heavily integrated with the legal team and the new Trustee will understand how these sensitive situations can be handled and guide the communications team as it aims to get the right message across to the public. Thus, a deep knowledge and understanding of Global South public education campaigning across a diverse range of countries and cultures will also be important.
Please note: The Human Dignity Trust wants to ensure that it is representative of the communities it supports. Therefore, applications from under-represented groups i.e. LGBT individuals and those from an ethnic minority background are particularly encouraged.
Julia Chain, Chair
Matthew Robinson
Michael K Addo
Conway Blake
Emma Cusdin
Patrick Doris
More information can be found here
The Trustee will serve for a renewable term of four years. Duties are expected to take about 10-12 days per year, including attending five Board meetings and five Communications Committee meetings with the CEO and Head of Strategic Communications. Expenses are reimbursed, but the role of Trustee is voluntary.
Candidates from the UK are preferred for the purpose of attendance of some in-person meetings. However, the Human Dignity Trust is a global organisation and welcomes exceptional candidates from other countries.
Human Dignity Trust actively encourages equality and diversity and it looks to recruit across age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, disability and background. It is keen to improve the diversity of the Board and ensure that it is representative of the communities it supports. Therefore, applications from under-represented groups i.e. ethnic minority backgrounds, LGBT individuals and women are particularly encouraged. All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.
The deadline for consideration is 2 March 2023.
If you would like to register your initial interest in this role, please fill in the form below.
Please note that registering your interest via this microsite does not constitute a formal application for the role. If it would be worth submitting an application, a member of the Nurole team will be directly in touch ahead of the deadline to let you know and invite you to apply through the Nurole platform.