LGBTI Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean

Ayat Soliman is the World Bank’s Strategy and Operations Director in the Latin America and Caribbean Region. She contributes to the definition and successful implementation of the strategic vision for the region and corporate initiatives; supports the Vice President with the day-to day operations and oversees an active portfolio of $32 Billion (240 projects) in investments across 31 countries in the LCR region.

Ms. Soliman has over 25 years of experience working on sustainable development issues at the World Bank, United Nations, and private sector, covering water, agriculture, environment, social and urban development, as well as cross cutting issues of climate change. In her current assignment, Ms. Soliman oversees the policy direction, strategic partnerships, and integrated delivery of sustainable development programs in the 26 countries in the region. Consistent with regional and country strategies, she provides strategic direction to deliver analytical and operational responses to key challenges faced by the region including food security, social inclusion & equitable economic transition, access to water and sanitation and climate resilience. 

Julia Braunmiller is a Senior Private Sector Development Specialist with the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law project. Women, Business and the Law produces a unique annual dataset on the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunities in 190 countries and forms the basis for the Equality of Opportunity for Sexual and Gender Minorities (EQOSOGI) initiative. Julia leads teams for the collection and analysis of primary data on comparative family law, the rights of women with disabilities, access to finance, and the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities. She also devises strategies and conducts trainings on the use of this data to inform World Bank operations. Previously, she taught international human rights law at the Johns Hopkins University and directed legal reform programs on combating human trafficking and promoting clinical legal education throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Antonia Orellana is a journalist specializing in Media Management from the Institute of Communication and Image of the University of Chile (2014). She has dedicated an important part of her professional career to supporting the development and dissemination of different social and political organizations in the country, highlighting her commitment to the feminist movement both in Chile and in Latin America. She was a member of the Popular Communication School 2012-2015 and from that year until 2020 she was an adjunct member of the Chilean Network against Violence against Women of the Metropolitan Region. In 2017, she was a member of the gender programmatic team of the presidential candidacy of Beatriz Sánchez and three years later she was coordinator of the Broad Front for the bill for parity in the constituent process and coordinator of the Articulation of Opposition Women and the campaign " United for Approval”.

She stands out, together with Marcela Sandoval, as co-author of the follow-up report "Violence against women in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic: An Absent State", delivered to the UN High Commissioner Dubravka Simunovic, 2020. For the 2021 presidential election, she was in charge of Social Organizations under the command of the President, Gabriel Boric, and she was a member of the feminist team of the Government Plan. 

Karen Lloyd is a Human Rights and Development Specialist. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Research, Advocacy & Programme Development at Equality for All Foundation (JFLAG); where she has primary responsibility for leading the research and programme development portfolios to ensure that the organisation’s advocacy initiatives remain relevant, effective, and responsive to the needs of LGBT Jamaicans.  

Christian De la Medina Soto co-authored the EQOSOGI first report, published in 2021. He joined the World Bank Group in January 2013 and has been part of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Core Team since 2018. He is also currently working on the Investment Climate Unit of the World Bank. Prior to joining the Investment Climate Unit and the SOGI Core Team, he worked on several projects at the World Bank, including Investing across Borders; Women, Business and the Law; and Benchmarking Public Procurement. He has worked as a foreign legal specialist at the Public International Law & Policy Group, as a foreign legal consultant at the Legal Department of the Inter-American Development Bank, and at Tobin & Munoz Firm and Moarbes, LLP, in Washington, DC. He also clerked for the Mexican Federal Court for over six years. He holds a master’s in international legal studies from American University, Washington College of Law (LL.M.); a master’s in political science from El Colegio de Abogados de Madrid, Spain; and a law degree from Anahuac University in Mexico.