ILGA World position on the Tel Aviv bid for the 2026/2027 World Conference

Dear member organisations,

As ILGA World, we continue to work closely with the local host organisations, Gender DynamiX and Iranti, in welcoming the world to Cape Town, South Africa for the 31st ILGA World Conference. We recognise that each moment and context in which the Conference is hosted is different. Therefore, we recognise that we carry the responsibility to be more politically aware to meaningfully hold and respond to global, regional and local realities.

Over recent days we have heard and understood the significant and legitimate disconcert regarding a member organisation bidding to host the World Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2026 or 2027.

In response to these multiple concerns, the ILGA World Board held an emergency meeting and unanimously decided to remove the bid from The Aguda from consideration. The decision was taken to ensure we fully uphold universal respect for human rights, equal representation, and the elimination of barriers to participation for all members – including in our conferences.

The bid to host our next World Conference in Tel Aviv will not go forward and will not be put to a vote at the upcoming World Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, as it was found in violation of ILGA World’s aims and objectives set out in our Constitution (3.1 and 3.2). The ILGA World Board is also reviewing The Aguda’s compliance with our Constitution and has decided to suspend the organisation from our membership to allow for that to happen.

ILGA World apologises. We know that seeing the Tel Aviv bid taken into consideration caused anger and harm to our communities. Our apology goes to our members, to our host organisations and our global communities — and especially to those in South Africa, who will soon host the global movement for our upcoming World Conference. We recognise the historical experience with apartheid and colonialism in South Africa: even the possibility of voting on such a bid in their home country would have been at odds with the unequivocal solidarity for the Palestinian people.

We heard our communities, and we must do better in the future: a situation like this must not repeat. This is why we call our global membership to action: we need stronger governance practices in vetting the proposals we receive.  Therefore, the ILGA World Board supports the operative part in the emergency motion from our member organisations, which calls for an amendment of the Standing Orders to have better guidelines on the criteria for accepting candidacies and proposals.

We also understand concerns about inclusion and participation raised by LGBTI activists in Cape Town based on the high cost of registration. Over the past two years, ILGA, Gender DynamiX and Iranti has fundraised to ensure equitable access and participation at the Conference. This included fundraising to ensure language justice and the expansion of the scholarship programme to ensure that the Africa region is well represented. This also meant raising funds to support local scholarships for Cape Town-based activists. In addition to these steps already taken, the ILGA World Board has agreed to issue additional but limited daily passes for local activists.  This will increase the opportunities for local participation, and for our global community to get to know the vital work done by activists in Cape Town. Both Gender DynamiX and Iranti remain engaged with local activists and collectives to identify opportunities that can benefit local queer activists and collectives in material ways.

We hope this will be a learning moment for our organisation. Only with improved governance processes, greater context and political awareness, and more participation will we be able to serve our communities even better.