In addition to being Director of Programmes at ILGA World, Gurchaten Sandhu is supporting The Inclusion Initiative (TII) at the London School of Economics as an Advisory Board Member.
Born to Panjabi Sikh working-class migrant parents in the UK, Gurchaten is a widely respected LGBTI changemaker and community leader, joining ILGA World to further strengthen and build on the organisation’s programmatic work and manage its growing Programmes team. Before their time at ILGA World, Gurchaten was the Non-Discrimination Programme Officer at the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch, where they built their expertise and knowledge on promoting social justice through decent and inclusive work for all, in particular to enhance LGBTIQ+ rights at work and economic inclusion. They were also the President for UN-GLOBE, the group representing LGBTIQ+ personnnel in the United Nations system. Gurchaten serves as a steering committee member of International Family Equality Day NGO, a fellow of the Salzburg Global LGBT forum and a Sarbat LGBT Sikhs volunteer. Gurchaten was also a former trustee of We Create Space. Gurchaten has been listed as the OUTStanding LGBT Role Model from 2018 to 2022. They are also an Honouree of the Out & Equal’s 2021 Global LGBTQ Corporate Advocate Outie Award, and the winner of the British LGBT Award for Exceptional Inclusion 2021 & Pink News Award for Community Role Model of the Year 2022.