International Day for the Fight against Homophobia and Transphobia

International Day for the Fight against Homophobia and Transphobia

On May 17, the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia is celebrated around the world. Despite progress with legislation in Latin America, including the recently approved marriage equality law approved this past April in Colombia—part of a larger trend of marriage equality rights achieved in other countries within the region—and breakthroughs such as the recognition of gender identity and laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, much remains to be done to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, especially in English-speaking Caribbean countries, where laws continue to criminalize consensual relationships between individuals of the same sex.

Today, May 17, the Gay Group of Bahia, Brazil, an organization which monitors violence against LGBTI people (and those who are perceived as such), have stated that so far this year 116 people LGBTI persons have been killed in the country. Most victims are trans women, and many of them of African descent. The violence perpetrated against their bodies is often brutal: their limbs are severed, they receive up to 30 shots, 30 stab wounds, their bodies are incinerated and burned.

But since the numbers do not reflect the magnitude of the tragedy, I would like to bring up the story of Veronica, a 25-year-old black, transgender woman who was tortured by police and prison officers São Paulo, Brazil in 2015. She was imprisoned for alleged attempted homicide and was brutally disfigured while in custody; they cut her hair and forced her to dress as a man. After the ordeal, she was made to sign a document denying that she had ever been tortured. However, after pictures of the beatings were published widely on social networks, she was taken to the Office of Policy Coordination for Sexual Diversity of São Paulo, where she opened up to what had happened. Veronica’s case has a happy ending, as the investigation against the officials that assaulted her is currently ongoing. Her case was also presented in a recent thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington D.C.

The Commission has already spoken of the extent of violence in the continent, especially against the transgender population, and has made a number of recommendations in its report Violence Against LGBTI Persons published (in Spanish) in late 2015. The Institute echoes the Commission’s recommendations, and in particular we would like to highlight: the need for States to collect data regarding forms of violence and discrimination against the LGBTI population; to take measures to prevent torture carried out by State agents and to provide training for them; to design programs and policies to eliminate the stigmatization and stereotyping of LGBTI persons and to ask States to sign and ratify the Inter-American Convention against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance approved by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2013 in Antigua, Guatemala.

The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights works to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, especially against transgender people in Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Peru.

Violence Against Black Women in Brazil has Increased: “The Maria de Penha Law Hasn’t Reduced Murders of Black Women”

Photo courtesy of OAS photographer Daniel Cima, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Violence Against Black Women in Brazil has Increased: “The Maria de Penha Law Hasn’t Reduced Murders of Black Women”

That was the message of Brazilian partners Criola—Black Women’s Organization of Rio de Janeiro, and Geledes—The Brazilian Black Women’s Institute in a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on April 7, in Washington, D.C. In their presentation before the Commission, Jurema Werneck of Criola, Nilza Iraci and Rodnei Jerico da Silva included statistics demonstrating that while rates of violence against white women in Brazil have decreased, during the same period violence against black women has increased.

“Between 2011 and 2013, sixty-four percent of women murdered in Brazil were black,” Werneck affirmed, citing official statistics. According to figures of the Secretary for Women’s Policy, at least 4,762 women died from gender-based violence in 2013. In other words, 13 women murdered each day, 33.2 percent of whom died at the hands of a partner or spouse.

In a ranking headed by Latin American countries, the 2015 Violence Map produced by the UN placed Brazil fifth in the world for violence against women, with a rate of 4.8 cases per 100,000 women.

One of the most powerful figures cited in the study showed that from 2003-2013 murders of white women in Brazil dropped by 9.8 percent, while the number of black women killed rose from 1,864 per year to 2,875 per year, an increase of 54.2 percent. “The statistics demonstrate that the Maria de Penha Law has not been able to reduce violence against black women,” Werneck said.

In presenting specific cases, the petitioners told stories of violence against black women, be it at the hands of authorities, husbands, partners or strangers. Among the cases cited was that of Veronica Bolina, a transgender black women held in a prison for men since 2015, where after being brutally beaten by police she was forced to dress as a man in a clear act of denigration and in violation of her human rights. In conclusion of their presentation, the petitioners called for the Commission to help the Brazilian government face the structural and institutional racism confronted by black women.

Representatives of the Brazilian state argued that although statistics show that violence has increased against black women, the government has been making an effort to improve the situation of this sector of the population. Margarette May Macaulay, the Commission’s Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, asked several questions about how to guarantee black women’s sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to terminate pregnancy, especially given the Zika virus epidemic. The petitioners expressed the the majority of women victims of the virus are black. According to Werneck, seventy percent of the pregnant women carrying the Zika virus are black.

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