On 10 and 11 December 2018, the Amsterdam Rainbow made its debut on the African continent in the Gauteng Province. The Amsterdam Rainbow dress is ‘ a work of art made from the flags of all countries in the world where homosexuality is illegal’. Being that most of the flags that make up the dress are African, it is important that the dress has come in its beauty to symbolise this sad truth.

The Centre for Human Rights visited the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress at the Embassy of the Netherlands during the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress Panel discussion ‘on the other(ed) side of the Rainbow’. This panel discussion, moderated by Keval Harie (Director of the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action Archive), featured Arnout van Krimpen (one of the four creators of the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress and the Director of the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress Foundation) addressing ; Yusrah Bardien (Director of Creative Fix); Landa Mabenge (author of Becoming Him: a trans memoir of triumph) and Pierre Brouard (Deputy Director of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender).

The themes addressed in the course of the discussion included: ‘the story behind the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress, the campaign objectives and experiences across the globe, future of the Dress and campaign’; ‘Creative arts and culture as a medium for social change and transformation and promotion of a rights based culture’; ‘the role of family, community and state, and health of LGBTI+’.

For more information, please contact:

Prof Frans Viljoen
Director: Centre for Human Rights

Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 3228
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743
[email protected]

OR

Kennedy Kariseb
Editorial Assistant: African Human Rights Law Reports
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 4197
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743
[email protected]