LGBTI Rights Coalition Sounds Alarm as Persecution Surges and Funding Collapses

The UN LGBTI Core Group's annual high-level event during General Assembly week delivered a stark warning: the global backlash against LGBTI rights is deepening and accelerating, with new criminalization laws, mass arrests, and a devastating funding collapse hitting the organizations that defend vulnerable communities. Major donor countries responded with more than €70 million in combined new pledges, while the UN's top human rights official announced a new offensive alliance — but speakers made clear the scale of the crisis is outpacing the response.

• 9 in 10 LGBTIQ+ organizations have lost funding since January 2025, with 63% unable to respond to emergencies involving violence or arrest
• Netherlands commits €50 million and UK pledges £21 million (2026-2029) for global LGBTI organizations
• UN High Commissioner Volker Türk launches Global Alliance for Human Rights with a planned LGBTIQ+ agenda
• France and Albania will present a resolution for universal decriminalization of same-sex relations at the Human Rights Council in October
• Ghanaian activist testifies about 21-day detention of 21 activists arrested during a human rights training
• Iceland warns of a new UN "pro-family" core group positioning itself to roll back established rights in multilateral negotiations
• Deutsche Bank research shows LGBTQ-inclusive companies have profit margins 2.3 times higher than lowest-scoring peers

The basics: New research presented by Executive Director Maria Shadin of OutRight International surveyed 229 LGBTIQ+ organizations across 94 countries, documenting the most severe funding collapse the movement has recorded.