What’s next for LGBTQI+ rights in Aotearoa New Zealand?
About the project
Using comparative, socio-legal and participatory methodology, this project aims to canvass deficiencies and opportunities in the law from a LGBTQI+ perspective. Law reform that reflects the priorities of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, queers, intersex people, and others (LGBTQI+) often occurs in reactionary fashion. This is in pursuance of a proactive LGBTQI+ rights agenda that is driven by local need, but informed by comparative practice.
The project intends to consider outstanding LGBTQI+ legal demands, that is, demands that have already been expressed by LGBTQI+ civil society but have not yet been implemented. It also intends to consider emerging LGBTQI+ legal demands such as those that are yet to be fully articulated by LGBTQI+ civil society but which may be, nonetheless, useful to LGBTQI+ rights realisation. The LGBTQI+ community rarely get the opportunity to inform and identify their own proactive agenda. This project aims to provide such an opportunity.
Grant amount
$28,000 for work in 2024 – 2025
About Vinod Bal
Vinod Bal (he/him) is a legal researcher focusing on LGBTQI+ rights issues in domestic, comparative, and international jurisdictions. He is the co-founder and advocacy lead of Adhikaar Aotearoa, an Aotearoa New Zealand-based charity that advocates for LGBT+ people of colour both domestically and internationally. Vinod is a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.
He is an emerging scholar and has an LLB(Hons) and BSocSci from the University of Waikato. He has studied human rights at Humboldt University of Berlin, LGBTQI+ law at Leiden University, Netherlands, and international law at The Hague Academy of International Law. He has also completed non-degree coursework on international criminal law at Florida State University.
Contact
Vinod Bal, Legal Researcher, Adhikaar Aotearoa
vinod.bal@adhikaaraotearoa.co.nz