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The meeting will bring together high-level representation from a significant number of countries, including Ministers of Education and other Ministers to. They will affirm their political commitment to ensure the right to education in a safe and healthy learning environment for all learners, including LGBT children and young people, and in general those perceived as non-conforming to existing gender norms. They will also discuss how to strengthen and scale up evidence-based national education sector responses to discrimination and violence, including homophobic and transphobic discrimination and violence including bullying.

The meeting will

- launch the first UN global report on the status of education sector responses to homophobic and transphobic violence. The report will provide an up-to-date review of the scope and consequences of that phenomenon across regions. It will also present the “ecosystem” of a comprehensive education sector response to homophobic and transphobic violence including examples from all over the world for each component of the response. Finally it will include recommendations for improvements in existing education sector responses based on the analysis of best practice and gaps

- produce a policy statement that will affirm political commitment to strengthening and scaling up education sector responses to homophobic and transphobic violence, based on the evidence and the recommendations included in the global report.

Approximately 200 participants will attend the meeting: ministers and representatives from the ministries concerned with the rights and protection of children and young people; representatives from national, regional and international civil society organizations; representatives from UN Agencies and bodies (ILO, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children, etc.); representatives from other multilateral organizations