Cuban regime intensifies repression against Berta Soler, leader of Damas de Blanco

Cuban regime intensifies repression against Berta Soler, leader of Damas de Blanco

Washington D.C., December 9, 2024 – Last Sunday, December 1, Cuban activist Berta Soler was arbitrarily detained by members of State Security. The leader of the Ladies in White was leaving the main headquarters of this organization located in the Lawton neighborhood in Havana when she was arrested, as denounced by her partner Angel Moya Acosta through his Facebook account. 

For decades, Berta has been arbitrarily detained every Sunday while trying to get to the church closest to her home, to ask for the release of people deprived of liberty for political reasons; however, between September and so far in December 2024 these arbitrary deprivations of liberty accompanied by forced disappearances have extended for more than three days. The first detention occurred on September 22, when she was transferred without her consent to a police station, where she remained for 67 hours; the second time was last November 10, and she was missing for more than 76 hours; and the third detention ended on December 4, and lasted 69 hours. 

“These prolonged forced disappearances are part of what has already been identified as a new pattern of persecution against the representative of Damas de Blanco”, warns Fernando Goldar, lawyer of the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality). 

It is known that the Cuban activist was threatened by a State Security agent on September 15, 2024, in the middle of a detention. The man, who has not been identified, offered Soler permission to leave the country and visit her children, in exchange for the leader of the Ladies in White to stop demonstrating on Sundays, a proposal that was rejected by the human rights defender, and has triggered arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances for more than 60 hours, a new pattern of repression exercised by the Cuban authorities. 

“For the authoritarian regime of this country, the activist Berta Soler represents a very strong dissident voice that questions its policies; therefore, implementing a strategy of repression like this, seeks to silence and exhaust her,” says Carlos Quesada, Executive Director of Race and Equality. 

The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights demands an end to the repression and persecution against the activist Berta Solar, who, through the organization Damas de Blanco, calls for the immediate release of people deprived of their liberty for political reasons in Cuba. We also request that the Cuban authorities guarantee the human rights of its citizens, especially if they are people who work for democracy in this country. We echo the call made by international human rights organizations to the Cuban State to cease the repression against the members of this organization, including Berta Soler. 



In Cuba, Extreme Poverty Mainly Affects People of African Descent on the Island

Bogota, October 30, 2024 – “Cuba is not as they tell you,” warns Yaxys Cires, Director of Strategy for the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos (OCDH), the independent Cuban civil society organization, which published in July 2024 the seventh report on social rights in this country, revealing that extreme poverty on the island had climbed to 89%.

The lawyer, a native of the Cuban province of Pinar del Río, explains each of the findings that show how the lack of resources mainly affects people of African descent in Cuba. “Of the total sample (1,148 surveys), 61% said they had problems buying the most essential things to survive, while in the Afro-Cuban population the figure stands at 68%,” he says.

Twelve percent said they were unemployed, a reality that affects 15% of the Afro-Cuban people surveyed. It was also reported that eight out of ten Afro-descendants who took part in this study stated that they had stopped eating breakfast, lunch or dinner, a situation that affected seven out of ten white or mestizo people in this report.

On the other hand, 92% of Afro-Cubans disapproved of the public health service; and 81% said they did not receive remittances, a figure higher than the 71% of white people who indicated that they did not obtain this type of income from relatives living outside the Island either. “Undoubtedly, they have less support to face the harsh reality of life in Cuba,” adds Cires.

The findings evidencing how extreme poverty mainly affects people of African descent in Cuba had already been recorded in 2023, in the sixth OCDH report on social rights in this country. At that time, 21% of Afro-Cubans said they resided in housing in danger of collapse, a figure that contrasts with 15% of the total number of people consulted (1,353), who said they were in the same situation.

This survey also revealed that 23% of Afro-descendants lacked permanent drinking water service, a reality that affected 17% of the total number of those who participated in last year’s study.

The findings of the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos show that Afro-Cubans in Cuba have greater difficulties in finding a job, feeding themselves, accessing potable water, and owning decent housing, compared to other population groups in the same country. “The situation of Afro-Cubans is very precarious; they live in unhealthy areas, have the lowest salaries, and little schooling,” says Eroises González, an Afro-Cuban woman from Havana who coordinates the organization Plataforma Femenina.

Another Havana woman of African descent in Cuba, Laritza Diversent, who heads the NGO Cubalex, says that these human rights violations are, more often than not, naturalized by civil society itself. “Racial discrimination, for example, is not a priority issue, so we don’t go there to do these studies, to identify these behaviors,” she adds.

Population Census

According to the expert on the rights of Afro-descendants, Afro-Uruguayan Noelia Maciel, the OCDH figures show the systemic racism that exists in Cuba, “and has been present throughout the socialist process.”

“These inequalities are reflected in the lack of access to employment, inequalities in educational levels, the non-receipt of remittances, which is what sustains daily life on the island, and also in the migratory processes. Afro populations are the ones that have more barriers to leave the country,” says Maciel, who also affirms that in the last population census of the Island (in 2012), these inequities were not evident because the existence of differentiated ethnic-racial ascendancies was unknown, “denying how the racial component is a factor of vulnerability and obstacles to the exercise of rights.”

In 2022, the State of Cuba should have conducted a new population and housing census; however, this process was postponed to 2025. According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the delay was caused by the severe economic crisis suffered by this country.

“Cuba by self-definition is in a moment of war economy, and carrying out censuses is very costly, and even more so at this time when there are certain standards that are imposed at the regional level, such as making these processes in more electronic formats. But equally on the part of the Cuban State there is no interest in carrying out a census and beginning to make these inequalities visible, especially incorporating the recommendations made by international organizations, such as the incorporation of the term Afro-descendant (which represents people belonging to various cultures descended from the African population that survived the slave system, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),” says Maciel.

In the last population census of the island it was known that in 2012 this country had 11,167,325 inhabitants, including white, black, and mestizo people. However, in this statistical count no distinction was made between those who were black, mestizo, and mulatto, so it was not possible to establish who the Afro-descendants in Cuba were, nor what their actual housing conditions were.

Racial Profiling

The findings of the last two reports on social rights in Cuba show how extreme poverty affects the majority of the Cuban population, mainly people of African descent in this country, who in addition to lacking the essentials for survival, are also victims of prejudice on the part of Cuban authorities, who persecute, repress, harass and detain them “for the simple fact of being black people,” according to Diversent.

“The repression is also linked to the persecution of people of African descent for what is known as racial profiling,” adds Diversent, who maintains that an analysis by the organization Cubalex revealed that the Afro-Cubans convicted for having participated in the historic and massive protests of July 11, 2021, had received harsher sentences compared to the white people who took to the streets that day to demand their rights.

According to this document, black people “that the State classifies with ‘unfavorable conduct’ receive sanctions with an average duration of 13.02 years, while non-Afro-descendants, under the same classification, have average sanctions of 12.0 years.” This finding adds to the aforementioned figures, evidencing how this population survives on the Island.

“In 2009, I was a victim of racial profiling. On one occasion I was working in a tourism center and some Canadian guests wanted to know where to see and enjoy Cuban jazz, so I indicated ‘La zorra y el cuervo’ (a club located in El Vedado, Havana’s commercial area), but they asked me to accompany them. We went along the Malecon, continued walking and then some policemen arrived to ask me for my identification. They detained me right there, put me in a patrol car, and took me to a station until they felt like it. I could not accompany the tourists,” says Norberto Mesa, an Afro-Cuban activist who in 1998 founded the organization Cofradía de la Negritud (Brotherhood of Blackness), a citizen project that emerged with the purpose of fighting discrimination and structural racism in this country.

The Pinareño (from the province of Pinar del Río) and human rights defender affirms that these types of situations continue to occur in Cuba, and adds that the Afro-Cuban population in penitentiary centers is much larger in comparison with other population groups. He also says that there is racial discrimination in the workplace, and very little representation of black people in micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Unfulfilled Recommendations

In 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD or the Committee), adopted its concluding observations after examining the national report submitted at that time by the State of Cuba, on Afro-Cubans. The Committee noted, among other things, that the Afro-descendant population continued to be “victims of racism and structural discrimination, as a product of the historical legacy of slavery,” which manifested itself “in the inequality gap” related to the economic, social, and cultural rights of this population, in comparison with the rest.

CERD registered several concerns about the census, the situation of defenders of the rights of the Afro-Cuban population, racial discrimination, access to justice, excessive use of force, racial stereotypes, and the non-recognition of this type of violence by the State. These problems are still latent in Cuba, and are reflected in the findings released by the OCDH, and in the analysis conducted by Cubalex.

The body of independent experts that oversees the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination also made a series of recommendations to the State that aim to allow more people to self-recognize themselves as Afro-descendants, to know how black people really live on the island, and to combat inequality, which, after six years of this document, is still prevailing.

According to Maciel, the State of Cuba should present an official report on the implementation of the CERD recommendations in 2025, due to the delay of the review schedule by countries, which resulted fromthe Covid-19 pandemic.

The conclusions found by the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos and the analysis conducted by Cubalex, also evidence that the authorities of this country have not met the objectives of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), which focus on the recognition, justice, and development of this population.

“Cuba, like most Latin American countries, the countries of the diaspora, have done very little during the decade.There have been no plans to create differentiated public policies. In the case of the island, there is a particular problem, and that is that they deny racial discrimination. So the government, by denying racial discrimination, evidently does not raise the need for differentiated public policies,” says Carlos Quesada, director of the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), who adds that the decade proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly will end on December 31, 2024.

The figures of the last two OCDH reports also reveal, according to Quesada, how structural racism in this country has prevented the Afro-Cuban population from being able to climb or access a slightly higher social ladder, including, for example, the engine of the national economy, which is tourism. “Cuba, in terms of the fight against racial discrimination is at least seventy years behind all Latin American countries, including the United States,” adds the Costa Rican lawyer and journalist.

As Cires mentioned at the beginning of this article, the reality of people of African descent in Cuba is not as Cuban authorities tell it; in their daily lives they face discrimination and violence in various forms.

The last census does not recognize people of African descent in their totality, and as documented in the recommendations of the CERD, the existence of racial discrimination is denied on the island; even though there are activists and human rights defenders denouncing the precarious conditions in which the Afro-Cuban population lives, and despite the publication of reports, such as those of the OCDH, and analyses, such as the one conducted by Cubalex, which show a reality opposite to that described by the State.

Race and Equality echoes the findings that reveal racism and structural discrimination in Cuba, and we request that the Cuban State recognize these inequalities, promote actions that allow the self-recognition of Afro-Cubans, and create public policies aimed at improving the living conditions of this population, and to combat poverty, social exclusion and marginalization, which disproportionately affect Afro-Cubans.



In Latin America and the Caribbean, Enforced Disappearances Hinder Democracy

Washington D.C., August 30, 2024 – In Venezuela, a month after its disputed presidential elections, more than two thousand people have been victims of forced disappearances and arbitrary detentions, according to the organizations Provea and Foro Penal.  In Mexico, “there are around 110 thousand people who are missing to date,” according to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED). Meanwhile, in Cuba, according to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, there are cases of activists who are “victims of short term forced disappearances.” 

The situation in these three countries is evidence of serious human rights violations in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, Ecuadorian lawyer Juan Pablo Albán, with whom we spoke on International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, this Friday, August 30. 

Enforced disappearances occur “whenever persons are arrested, detained or transferred against their will, or otherwise deprived of their liberty by government agents of any sector or level, by organized groups or by private individuals acting on behalf of the Government or with its direct or indirect support, and who then refuse to disclose the fate or whereabouts of such persons, or to acknowledge that they are deprived of their liberty,” according to the United Nations. 

This is precisely what is constantly occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean, where, according to Albán, the highest number of forced disappearances in the world is registered, with Mexico being the country where this type of human rights violation has been documented the most. 

“The most notable trends in the region and in the world have to do with disappearances committed by non-state actors, disappearances in the migratory situations, disappearances in the context of protest suppression, or under the argument of the fight against terrorism or organized crime, and disappearances of people who are labeled as potential members of gangs, organized crime gangs or terrorist groups,” says the member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances of the United Nations. 

Albán assures that when cases of forced disappearance are registered in a country, the quality of democracy is lessened because there is no social debate. “States lose a lot when they do not respond, do not confront this phenomenon, and worse still, when they practice forced disappearance as a state policy,” he adds.

Colombia

The phenomenon of forced disappearances in Colombia has been a persistent problem for more than six decades, and is closely linked to the armed conflict that ravaged the country. According to the Truth Commission, between 1985 and 2016, approximately 121,768 cases of forced disappearances were reported, although it is estimated that the figure could be as high 210,000 victims. This problem has also affected the migrant population, especially Venezuelans. According to the Andrés Bello Catholic University, from 2015 to 2020, 836 Venezuelan people were reported missing in Colombia. However, an absence of accurate data has hindered a complete assessment of the magnitude of these human rights violations.

In the framework of the 2021 National Strike, 4,846 transfers for temporary protection were documented, a legal figure that has been questioned for its arbitrary use and its impact on the rights of protesters. Despite the Constitutional Court’s resolution that requires detailed reports and the right to request the cessation of the transfer, these practices continue today and remain problematic, with numerous cases of abuse reported, including torture and sexual violence.

The handling of enforced disappearances in Colombia faces several critical challenges, such as the failure of the Attorney General’s Office to activate the Urgent Search Mechanism (MBU); the lack of compliance with international recommendations; and the use of euphemisms by the Government to minimize the seriousness of the problem. In addition, the underreporting of cases and the discrepancy between official figures and those reported by civil society organizations complicate the accurate assessment of the phenomenon. These issues underscore the need for comprehensive reform in police practices, and improved transparency and effectiveness in the state’s response to enforced disappearances.

Cuba

In Cuba, between January 2022 and July 2024, “93 incidents of human rights violations were recorded, which included conditions of forced disappearance for several hours, days, and even more than a week”, according to the organization Cubalex. The Ladies in White movement has reported that between 2013 and June 2024, 3,904 arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances have been documented against members of this women’s collective. Most have been victims on repeated occasions, and for periods ranging from 24 to 72 hours.  

These types of forced disappearances, which are not prolonged as in Colombia, mainly affect activists, independent journalists, artists and, in general, anyone who disagrees with the official discourse.

A report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of July 2024, also expressed concern about the arrests and excessive use of force exercised by the Police during the historic demonstrations of July 11, 2021, known as 11J. According to this UN Special Procedure, most of the persons detained in that context did not appear before a judicial authority until many days, weeks or months later, and before that the fate and whereabouts of the detainees were unknown, which constituted an act of enforced disappearance.

Nicaragua 

In Nicaragua nine persons are in a situation of forced disappearance, according to the Registration Unit (UDR).  Among these persons are indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, and journalist and cultural affairs director Fabiola Tercero. 

Brooklyn Rivera, 72 years old, is an indigenous Miskitu, regional deputy (2022-2026) and a leader of the Miskitu people (Ta Upla) and of the indigenous party YATAMA (Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka, “Children of Mother Earth united”). His family has had no knowledge of his whereabouts since September 29, 2023. In January of this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that Rivera is in “enforced disappearance” and advocated for his release.

Fabiola Tercero is a journalist, activist and founder of “El rincón de Fabi”, a project that aims to promote reading among young Nicaraguans. Her home was raided on July 12 and since then her whereabouts are unknown, as are those of her mother and sister.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, the director of the Legal Defense Unit (UDJ), Alexandra Salazar, affirmed that the authorities refuse to provide information on the whereabouts of these people. “In such a way that there is no certainty of their conditions of detention, nor verification of their state of health and life,” she added. In addition, the UDJ identified cases in which prison authorities recommended that family members look for political detainees “in the morgues,” which increases anguish and constitutes an additional form of torture.

For its part, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, in its July 2024 report, stated that “short-term” enforced disappearances have been used as a “tool to repress opponents and critics of the Government” since 2018. The Group also emphasized that the State must promptly provide accurate information about the detention of persons deprived of their liberty and the place(s) they are held to their family members and any other person with a legitimate interest (art. 10, para. 2, of the Declaration), and that failure to do so constitutes an enforced disappearance. 

Peru 

In the case of Peru, according to the National Registry of Missing Persons and Burial Sites (Renade) of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, between 1980 and 2000, during the internal armed conflict, there were 21,918 missing persons, of which the whereabouts of 19,200 cases have yet to be determined. To date, the search for 2,718 missing persons has been completed, of which 39 were found alive. In addition, 682 skeletal remains were identified and returned to the families. At the beginning of July 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) pronounced itself on the restitution of remains in the Putis case, encouraging the State to continue the search, identification, dignified restitution and prosecution of those responsible.

Unfortunately, the country has seen regression in the access to justice, the right to truth and reparation for the victims of forced disappearances. Recently, the Congress of the Republic approved Law 32107 that prescribes crimes against humanity or war crimes committed before July 1, 2002, that is, before the entry into force of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. With this law, no one may be prosecuted, convicted or punished for forced disappearances, genocide, slavery, terrorism, systematic and widespread torture, and other crimes against humanity committed during the armed conflict. 

“All this is to give impunity to Fujimori and others involved in serious human rights violations,” Albán emphasizes. In fact, the acts committed by former president Alberto Fujimori led to the declaration of Peru’s international responsibility in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases, which were resolved by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and in which several of these actions have been classified as crimes against humanity.

Last June, through a communiqué, the IACHR expressed that the proposed law is contrary to international law and warned that it “openly disobeys the sentences of the IACHR Court.” In the same vein, Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a recent statement that these crimes should not be subject to amnesties or statutes of limitation. However, nothing prevented Congress from approving the law.

The cases of forced disappearances described in Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Peru are evidence of the serious human rights violations that also occur throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and which, at the same time, hinder democracy in the region. 

According to CED member Juan Pablo Albán, it is necessary that in each of these countries a culture of denunciation is promoted, cases are documented, protection channels are used, and more States that make up the United Nations General Assembly commit themselves to fight against this phenomenon, in order to reduce the number of forced disappearances worldwide. 

From the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) we commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, and emphasize that this type of violence affects thousands of human beings including activists, human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, artists of the region, and opposition members or people who are perceived as such, as well as their families, including children who suffer from this institutional violence, or by other actors. We condemn this phenomenon and call on the authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean to commit to finding those who are still missing, and to protect critical and dissident voices. We also urge independent civil society to continue to denounce this violence before international human rights protection mechanisms.



OAS General Assembly: Race and Equality to dialogue with civil society and experts on racial discrimination, gender-based violence and hemispheric security

Washington D.C., June 14, 2024 – Ahead of the 54th session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race & Equality) is reaffirming its commitment to the defense of human rights in the region by holding three parallel events. The first event, the Inter-American Forum against Discrimination, which has been part of the institutional calendar since 2005, will bring together leaders from different countries for a dialogue on reparations and the main demands of the Afro-descendant, indigenous and LGBTI+ population. The second event will address the human rights crisis in Nicaragua and international financial support; and the third event, coordinated by the Latin American Human Rights Consortium, will bring together key actors from different countries to discuss human rights as a pillar of hemispheric security in the Americas. 

The OAS General Assembly will be held from June 26 to 28 at Conmebol, located in the city of Asuncion, Paraguay, under the theme “Integration and Security for the Sustainable Development of the Region”. For Raza e Igualdad, the OAS General Assembly is a space for broad dialogue and exchange of best practices of civil society in the region, as well as an opportunity to strengthen its demands by listening to delegations from Member States and its Secretariat. In this way, the parallel events achieve the purpose of effective political advocacy before this international human rights mechanism. 

Inter-American Forum against Discrimination

This year, the Inter-American Forum against Discrimination will be held on Tuesday, June 25, and will consist of four sections with the following themes: “The role of human rights protection systems in the reparation of different groups discriminated against in the region”; “Experiences of reparation in the region and its scope in relation to racialized, mobile or displaced groups, sexual, religious, linguistic, political minorities, among others”; “Reparation in the context of gender”; and, finally, the section “The ethnic population and the 54th Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly”.

The opening panel of the Forum will feature Gloria De Mees, OAS Rapporteur on the Rights of People of African Descent and against Racial Discrimination. In the following panels, leaders from the region will join the debate with information about their contexts and their struggles for reparations, restitution and guarantees of non-repetition. In addition, in the context of gender reparations, several activists will present and discuss the implications of the general recommendation of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) on Afro-descendant women. 

The annual Forum will also discuss the strengthening of the Afrodescendant Coalition of the Americas and the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance (CIRDI). 

To participate, register here: https://tinyurl.com/2fx7uc29  

***

International financial support to Nicaragua despite democratic and human rights crisis

On Tuesday afternoon, June 25, Raza e Igualdad will bring together experts from the OAS, academia and civil society to discuss the responsibility of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in relation to crimes against humanity and human rights violations in Nicaragua. It will also analyze the strategic relevance of these institutions in the use of human rights due diligence to address the negative impacts of their development projects. 

In a regime historically marked by systematic human rights violations, the continuity of international financial support brings to light several questions from civil society. From 2018 to the present, the authoritarian regime of Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo and their followers have carried out widespread and systematic attacks against the Nicaraguan civilian population in opposition for political reasons. Since 2021, the democratic and human rights crisis has significantly worsened. On February 9, 2023, 222 people were released from prison, then banished to the United States and arbitrarily stripped of their nationality and citizenship rights. Among the most vulnerable groups are human rights defenders, journalists, religious leaders, women, indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, and LGBTI+ people.

However, the abundant evidence of the democratic and human rights crisis in Nicaragua was not enough for the International Financial Institutions to decide to change their strategy towards the country, strengthen their human rights due diligence, or suspend and/or cancel the implementation of their projects in the country. In February 2024, the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank Group and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration supported 97 projects in the execution phase in Nicaragua, with the approval of US$5,082.43 million, according to information available on their websites. Of these, 57 projects were approved for a total of US$2,784.43 million, following the onset of the crisis in 2018.

To participate, register here: https://tinyurl.com/57r4b22m

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Human Rights as a Pillar of Hemispheric Security in the Americas

The Latin American Human Rights Consortium – formed by Race & Equality, Freedom House and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) – will hold the event “Human Rights as a Pillar of Hemispheric Security in the Americas” on Wednesday, June 26. This event aims to highlight human rights violations in Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Venezuela as a driver of the debate on security in the region. In these countries with insecure and repressive contexts, inequalities are generated in terms of freedom and security with a differential effect on the most vulnerable groups, such as Afro-descendants, women, children, LGBTI+ population and people deprived of liberty for political reasons.

Thus, new concerns and challenges, including the political, social, economic, environmental and human rights situation of OAS Member States, have led this organization to redefine its understanding of hemispheric security. Thus, on October 28, 2003, the States of the Americas promulgated the “Declaration on Security in the Americas”, proposing a new concept of multidimensional security that recognizes that the objective of hemispheric security is the “protection of human beings”.

In its declaration, the OAS considered that “representative democracy is an indispensable condition for the stability, peace and development of the States of the Hemisphere” and that it is “the responsibility of the specialized forums of the OAS, as well as inter-American and international forums, to develop cooperation mechanisms to confront these new threats on the basis of the applicable instruments”. 

In this context, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR, Pedro Vaca; the Deputy Director of the Program for Latin America and the Caribbean of Freedom House, Alejandra Argueta; the lawyer of the organization Cubalex, Alain Espinoza; the legal professional of the Legal Defense Unit of Nicaragua, Arlette Serrano; the Venezuelan journalist from Voces de la Memoria, Victor Navarro; and the co-founder of the association Tracoda (Transparency, Social Controllership, Open Data) from El Salvador, Luis Villatoro, will discuss strategies to strengthen the security and protection of the population and human rights defenders, among the current challenges faced by authoritarian regimes in the Americas. 

To participate, register here: https://tinyurl.com/537cdu3w  

 

More information about the events 

Inter-American Forum against Discrimination

Date and time: Tuesday, June 25, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (Asunción and Washington D.C.) / 10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (Brasilia time)

Location: Dazzler Hotel, Aviadores del Chaco avenue

Live broadcast via Zoom and Facebook Live @RaceandEquality

Registration: https://tinyurl.com/2fx7uc29  

Simultaneous interpretation in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

 

International financial support to Nicaragua despite democratic and human rights crisis

Date and time: Tuesday, June 25th, 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (Asuncion and Washington D.C.) / 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. (Brasilia time)

Location: Dazzler Hotel, Avenida Aviadores del Chaco

Live broadcast via Zoom and Facebook Live @RaceandEquality

Registration: https://tinyurl.com/57r4b22m  

Simultaneous interpretation in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

 

Human Rights as a Pillar of Hemispheric Security in the Americas

Date and time: Wednesday, June 26th, 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (Asunción and Washington, D.C.) / 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. (Brasilia time)

Location: Hotel Esplendor, Avenida Aviadores del Chaco

Live broadcast via Zoom and Facebook Live @RaceandEquality

Registration: https://tinyurl.com/537cdu3w 

Simultaneous interpretation in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Five years after 11M in Cuba: LGBTI+ activism, stories of repression, jail, and forced exile

Washington D.C., May 10, 2024 – This Saturday, May 11, marks five years since a public demonstration in Havana, Cuba, that ended with dozens of LGBTI+ people detained and assaulted. 

On that day in 2019, also known as 11M, dozens of people with diverse sexual orientation and gender identity were getting ready to participate in a conga (Cuban dance that is accompanied by drums) for the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, which is commemorated worldwide every May 17; but the event was canceled at the last minute, generating indignation among those preparing to attend, who spontaneously continued with the plan to take to the streets to demand their rights, even though they did not have the approval of the official body that coordinates this activity, the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (Cenesex).

Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans and non-binary people gathered in Havana’s Central Park, and starting at 4 pm they began to march without a set course. They mobilized peacefully and held a besatón (the name given to the act in which several LGBTI+ people kiss in public as a sign of protest), until the Cuban authorities, including members of the State Security blocked the demonstration, assaulted and arbitrarily detained dozens of demonstrators who had attended thanks to a call made through social networks.

On this date, we spoke with activists from this country about the challenges that come with activism and the struggle for LGBTI+ rights.

“Washing and putting away the laundry”

This phrase is mentioned by Yennys Hernández, lesbian activist and reporter for the independent media Periodismo de Barrio, to explain how the activism of LGBTI+ people goes “between a rock and a hard place”. 

She has been a victim of harassment by Cuban authorities. More than a year ago, she watched in amazement as State Security showed up at her wedding celebration to take down the names of the human rights defenders who attended the wedding to put pressure on the dissident voices that had gathered at the event. 

Hernandez says that, as she and her wife did, in Cuba same-sex couples can marry and adopt; assisted reproduction is also legal, discrimination in the workplace and in education is prohibited, and people with diverse gender identities can change their names on their documents. However, in this country there is no gender identity law, and the macho violence that exists in all public and private spheres punishes, represses, and assaults lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans and non-binary people. 

LGBTI+ people who fight for their rights are also victims of repression and harassment by Cuban authorities, as are artists, independent journalists and, in general, dissident voices against the Cuban government. Most people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, according to Hernández, avoid reporting that they have been summoned for interrogation to avoid being excluded from the dialogues and processes that seek to advance the recognition of the rights of this population in Cuba. 

LGBTI+ people “wash and put away their clothes”, that is, they censor themselves to survive in this country, where there are no official records that address the gender-based violence suffered daily by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans and non-binary people.

Behind bars 

The story of Brenda Díaz García, a trans woman who remains in a male penitentiary center for participating in the peaceful protests of July 11, 2021 (known as 11J) in the municipality of Güira de Melena, in the province of Artemisa, demonstrates the discrimination and, in general, the violence suffered by trans people in Cuba. 

She was arrested because, according to Cuban authorities, she had “dressed as a woman to infiltrate” the demonstrations. And as soon as she arrived in prison, they cut her hair and did not recognize her chosen name, two symbolic aggressions that annulled her rights. 

Brenda Díaz was initially sentenced to more than 14 years in prison, but eight months ago her sentence was reduced to 7 years and nine months, according to Ana María García, her mother, who has repeatedly denounced that her daughter has been beaten and has been the victim of sexual violence inside the prison, where she remains for demanding changes in Cuba. 

Living in fear

“Doing activism in Cuba and being an LGBTI+ person is complicated because you know very well what happens inside the Island, and the fear that exists is a fear that they put inside your body; and, from here it is easier to do it because you feel free to be able to do it, because you are not watched,” says Nornardo Perea, a Cuban artivist exiled in Spain since 2019. 

The writer, photographer and documentary filmmaker participated in the 00 Havana Biennial in May 2018, which was organized by the San Isidro Movement (of which he is still part). As a result of this event where he openly exposed his political position and sexual orientation, Perea was threatened and interrogated three times by Cuban authorities.

“In the third interview they made me sign a paper with several slogans. In the end, they (the authorities) do with you whatever they want. There were five hours of interrogation in Marianao (municipality of Havana). They forced me to collaborate with them,” says the artivist, who after participating in March 2019 in a journalism workshop in Prague, Czech Republic, went into exile in Madrid, Spain, and still, he says, continues to adapt to that city and that country.  

The stories revealed by Hernandez, Garcia, and Perea show how complex it is to be an activist and fight for LGBTI+ rights in Cuba, a country where advances such as equal marriage or adoption between same-sex couples have occurred, and at the same time lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans and non-binary people are prohibited from participating in marches independently and demanding their rights without participating in the actions organized by Cenesex. 

From the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) we commemorate 11M by recognizing the work of activists working for the recognition of the rights of people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in this country. We also call on the State of Cuba to promote gender identity laws and laws against gender violence, and to refrain from repressing and harassing defenders of the rights of this population. 

Cuba and Nicaragua: countries where independent journalism is a crime

On World Press Freedom Day, we demand that Cuban and Nicaraguan authorities respect independent journalism, without resorting to violence and repression against those who practice this profession.

Washington D.C., May 3, 2024 – In the authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Nicaragua, independent journalism is punished with imprisonment, exile, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, confiscation of personal property, and media outlets. On World Press Freedom Day, commemorated today worldwide, and recognizing that freedom is an essential pillar for accountability and the proper functioning of public institutions, the Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race and Equality) highlights the work of Cuban and Nicaraguan journalists, who tirelessly strive to bring visibility to the democratic and human rights crises in their countries and advocate for their people’s right to access truthful and diverse information.

Cuba: Arbitrary Detentions and Repression

In Cuba, “home arrests, summonses, and detentions of journalists and reporters continue to be one of the main tactics used by the government to intimidate them or as a way to inhibit independent and critical journalism,” according to Chapter IV.B of the 2023 annual report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

According to the report ‘Cuba: Resistance against Censorship,’ prepared by the organization Article 19, there were a total of 274 attacks against journalists and activists on the island last year. At least five journalists and reporters remain deprived of their liberty for political reasons, facing unjust charges for exercising their right to freedom of expression. These individuals are Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, Jorge Armando Bello, José Antonio López Piña, Jorge Fernández Era, and Luis Ángel Cuza.

The authoritarian Cuban regime has also increased restrictions and obstacles for the entry and exit of independent journalists from the territory. As of April 2024, journalists Reinaldo Escobar, Camila Acosta, Anais Remón, and Henry Constantín were banned from leaving the country.

Additionally, Cuban authorities have imposed a series of regulations severely limiting the exercise of press freedom and journalistic work in Cuba. Among these measures are mandatory military service for women wishing to study journalism, Decree 370 which suppresses free expression on the Internet, and the Social Communication Law, which regulates media content on the island and disregards independent press as a legal entity.

This grim picture of Cuba forces independent journalists to work under precarious conditions, facing constant threats and reprisals; however, their determination to shed light on injustices and defend the human rights of this country is unwavering.

Nicaragua: Between Clandestinity, Exile, and Self-Censorship

In the 2023 Annual Report of the IACHR, the organization and the Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression (RELE) warned that “censorship and repression reached alarming levels” in Nicaragua.

Since the beginning of the socio-political and human rights crisis in April 2018, more than 250 journalists have been forced into exile, 56 media outlets have been shut down and their buildings confiscated, 22 journalists have been stripped of their nationality and their properties seized, and the murder of journalist Angel Gahona, who covered the start of peaceful demonstrations six years ago, remains unresolved.

In the past year, the Ortega Murillo regime has extended arbitrary detention for political reasons to journalists who weren’t even covering political topics. Such as the case of Víctor Ticay, arrested while covering a religious procession and sentenced to 8 years in prison for unproven charges of ‘spreading false news and conspiring to undermine national integrity.’

There are also reports of five journalists who were accused of the same false charges and detained for a few hours, as well as cases of 22 female journalists who have been victims of sexual harassment by police forces.

It’s worth noting that agents of the National Police, both uniformed and in plain clothes, are the main aggressors against press freedom in the country. Additionally, the regime employs the Directorate of Migration and Foreigners and the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications for coercive purposes. The approval of repressive laws, such as the Special Law on Cybercrimes and the Sovereignty Law, has exacerbated the situation by granting the regime powers to prosecute and punish anyone who criticizes the government.

This repression has led to independent journalism being completely silenced in 5 out of Nicaragua’s 17 departments. However, Nicaraguan journalists work clandestinely and in exile, overcoming censorship and disseminating the truth about the crimes against humanity committed in Nicaragua.

For Race and Equality, World Press Freedom Day recalls the importance of the right to press freedom and expression in the functioning of a democratic society. We take this opportunity to call on the international community to defend these rights and work together to ensure that the voices of independent journalists are no longer silenced by the authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Nicaragua. We demand that the authorities of both states guarantee this right and allow for the development of independent journalism, without resorting to violence and repression against those involved in this profession.

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calls for “full release” of Cuban activist Yandier García Labrada

Washington D.C., April 5, 2024 – “February 27 (2024) was the last time I saw my brother. He was very thin,” says Iran Almaguer Labrada, brother of Cuban activist Yandier Garcia Labrada (39 years old), who appears in the Opinion 68/2023 of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which was made public in mid-March. In the document, the United Nations mechanism requested the “full release” of the human rights defender, who is also a member of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL).

The Opinion, adopted in the framework of the 98th session of this Working Group, also asks the State of Cuba to compensate and make reparations to García Labrada; to investigate and punish those responsible for his detention; and to provide information on compliance with this “decision” within a period of six months after its publication, which is October 2024.

“On October 6, 2020, my brother was detained for claiming his rights in a queue (line to obtain food and basic necessities). A repressor pushed him and assaulted him, and then more State Security agents arrived and called the police. He was shouting ‘Down with the dictatorship’,” Almaguer says.

Yandier García Labrada is serving a five-year sentence for the crimes of contempt for authority and propagation of epidemics. Since the beginning of his imprisonment, he has been transferred to various prisons and has suffered isolation, transfers to punishment cells, denial of medical attention, and restrictions on communication with his family members. Since January 19, 2023, he has been held in the Guabineyón 8 correctional work center in the province of Las Tunas. The prison authorities have denied him the benefits of home visits and parole, even though he meets the regulatory requirements.

His brother Iran Almaguer, who suffers from a disease called retinitis pigmentosa which has led him to blindness, says that Yandier Garcia lived with his mother in the municipality of Manatí, in Las Tunas; and since he has been deprived of his freedom, she has suffered serious health problems. “She is hypertensive and has Alzheimer’s disease”.

From the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), the organization that referred the case of García Labrada to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, we demand that the State of Cuba comply with the request made by this United Nations mechanism, in its Opinion number 68/2023. We call for the immediate release of this Cuban activist, who has been unjustly deprived of his liberty for more than three years, as well as all those who remain imprisoned for demanding their rights in this country. We demand that Cuba respect, protect and guarantee the human rights of all its inhabitants, without discrimination of any kind.

We also call on the international community to follow up on compliance with this Opinion, and to continue to condemn the human rights violations occurring on the island.

Cuba violates human rights, we demand an end to repression!

Washington D.C., March 26, 2024. – On March 17 and 18, 2024, the social networks of international and civil society organizations that monitor the social, political and economic crisis in Cuba were flooded with images of the island, showing people from the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Matanzas, shouting: “Current and food”, “homeland and life”, “freedom”, “no to violence”, “down with Diaz-Canel”, among other phrases.

The demonstrations originated in response to blackouts, lack of food and, in general, to the complex situation in the country. As a result of these events, 10 people were arbitrarily detained, according to the organization Justicia 11J, which also documented Internet outages, and cases of violence and repression exercised by Cuban authorities against the people who came out to protest.

One week after these peaceful protests took place, the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) reiterates that the Cuban government systematically violates the human rights of those who reside on the island.

After the massive demonstrations of July 11 and 12, 2021, also known as 11J, in which thousands of people took to the streets and were arbitrarily detained (and more than 700 are still deprived of their freedom, according to Justicia 11J), other protests have taken place, such as the one in August 2022 in Nuevitas, in the province of Camagüey, which left 14 men and women in prison; or the one in Caimanera, in Guantánamo, which left six people in jail.

“During the protests of 11J, in those of Nuevitas, Caimanera and now in those of March 17 and 18, 2024, the Cuban people have demanded the same things: full respect for civil rights, restoration of electricity, food and, in general, improvement of the political, social and economic situation in Cuba. However, Cuban authorities punish protesters with imprisonment, repress activists, artists and independent journalists, and limit the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and association. We demand an end to violence against those calling for change in Cuba,” says Christina Fetterhoff, director of Race and Equality Programs.  

From the Institute we call on the Cuban authorities to recognize the human rights of those who participate in peaceful protests. We demand that the repression cease, and we ask the international community to follow up and continue to denounce the violations of rights that occur daily in this country.

In Cuba, 8M is lived between gender violence and repression

Washington, March 8, 2024 – In Cuba, March 8 (8M), International Women’s Day, is lived between gender violence and repression. During 2023, 89 women were victims of femicide in Cuba, and so far in 2024, 12 cases have already been documented, according to the platform Yo sí te creo en Cuba and the Gender Observatory of Alas Tensas magazine. Last year, more than 60% of the documented arbitrary detentions (626 out of a total of 936 people) were against Cuban women, according to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights; and 78 women are currently deprived of liberty for political reasons on the Island, according to figures from the organization Justicia 11J.

“Cuba is a country that has violated the fundamental rights of women since the very beginning of the so-called revolution, and there are plenty of examples of courageous women who were imprisoned, expelled from their workplaces, and confined to exile. One of these was the case of ‘Las Plantadas’ (women who in 1960 were imprisoned for being dissident voices to the Cuban State), and in more recent times there are the Ladies in White and all those who were imprisoned on July 11, 2021, such as Lisandra Góngora, who is the mother of five children and remains in prison for participating in the protests,” says Katia Hernández, director of the Federación Latinoamericana de Mujeres Rurales (Flamur).

On the island, where all kinds of public demonstrations organized by independent civil society are prohibited, the women’s collective Damas de Blanco went from 243 members in 2013, to 50 members in recent years, as a result of arbitrary detentions, short-term disappearances, fines, threats, and internet cuts. “Currently five Damas de Blanco are deprived of their liberty along with dangerous common female prisoners. Their names are: Aymara Nieto, Sayli Navarro, Sissi Abascal, Tania Echevarría, and Jacqueline Heredia,” states Berta Soler, leader of this organization.

On 8M, activists and representatives of independent organizations recall that in November 2022, a campaign was launched to demand that Cuban authorities create a comprehensive law to protect women, regardless of their political position, sexual orientation and gender identity, religious beliefs, race or age. However, this petition was not included in the legislative schedule for 2024, even though that in 2023, Cuba was the Latin American country where femicide rates increased the most. “They increased by 150% with respect to 2022,” says Yanelys Núñez, coordinator of the Gender Observatory of Alas Tensas magazine, during her testimony at the thematic hearing ‘Cuba: Right to freedom of association’, which took place on February 29, 2024 before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Persecution

“The institutional and vicarious gender violence exercised by the Cuban state, especially against mothers and caregivers involved in activism, has manifested itself in an alarming way through coercion, intimidation, defamation campaigns, banishments, cuts in communications, and threats to take away custody of their children. This type of violence, which can be considered a form of torture, constitutes a serious violation of human rights, and seeks to inhibit activism and silence the voices of civil society,” adds Núñez.

In the midst of this difficult panorama, women with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities also suffer discrimination exercised by the authorities of this country; as is the case of Brenda Díaz, a young trans woman who remains in a male penitentiary, where she is serving a sentence of 14 years and seven months for having participated in the protests of July 11, 2021. “She has been prevented from wearing women’s clothing and from wearing her hair long,” says Camila Rodriguez, director of Justicia 11J, during her participation in the thematic hearing held before the IACHR.

“As a result of my daughter’s imprisonment I have been persecuted and threatened by state security. They have told me that they are going to give her more time, that they are going to take her to another province, but I am not afraid of any of these threats because in the end she will always be my daughter, and wherever they put her I will continue to see her,” says Ana María García, Brenda’s mother. Her words show the situation experienced by hundreds of Cuban women, who have their loved ones in prison for demanding changes in Cuba and for being human rights defenders on the island.

In this country, there are plenty of testimonies of Cuban women who denounce gender violence and persecution on a daily basis, as well as resilient voices, such as that of Dunia Medina Moreno, from the Red Femenina de Cuba, who says she will continue working to “achieve the true freedom” that women in Cuba desire, even if that means being harassed by authorities.

The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) commemorates 8M by remembering Cuban women, especially those who work for the recognition of women’s rights, those who remain deprived of their freedom for political reasons, and the mothers, daughters, sisters, and partners of those imprisoned for demanding their fundamental rights. We also demand that the Cuban authorities create a comprehensive law against gender violence, which prevents GBV, improves care, and guarantees the human rights of women on the island, regardless of their political position, sexual orientation and gender identity, religious beliefs, race, or age.

Lesbian Rebellions: advances and setbacks in the rights of lesbians

Washington, 13 October 2023.- The Day of Lesbian Feminist Rebellions in Latin America and the Caribbean is not a day created by the United Nations. Born in 2007, following an accord adopted at the 7th Meeting of Lesbian Feminists of Latin America and the Caribbean (ELFLAC), in which around 200 lesbian feminists from across the region participated, delegates chose October 13th to commemorate the first Regional Meeting of Lesbian Feminists of 1987 in Mexico, the first lesbian assembly with a public presence. [1]

Since then, several countries in the region have developed different political and cultural actions promoted by lesbian feminists in favor of visibility and against discrimination. Their advocacy has also brought about legislative and regulatory advances in human rights; however, there has been more progress in some countries than in others.

For example, in Nicaragua there are no laws that protect the LGBTI+ population, much less lesbians specifically. “It is difficult to think of setbacks with respect to lesbian rights in a country where there has almost never been progress,” says Nicaraguan activist Tania Irías, of the Grupo Lésbico Feminista Artemisa, a collective that has been providing spaces for reflection, acceptance, and non-discrimination to young lesbian women in Nicaragua since 2006.

For Irías, the greatest setbacks in the lesbian struggle are linked to the organizational disarticulation caused by “state repression and the establishment of a dictatorship that, as a repressive strategy, has undermined the process of articulation, demand, and visibility of lesbians as political bodies with rights”.

However, in this context of dictatorship, in the “allied” spaces, the struggle for lesbian rights is also usually relegated. “We are not a priority, and we are always being asked to leave the visible struggle to others,” explains Irías, who also assures that as a movement they are clear about the need to continue to occupy their spaces of visibility and to continue joining “with those who join us and making efforts, because it will be difficult for us we don’t,” Irías emphasizes.

In contrast, other countries have made significant progress in the recognition of LGBTI+ rights. In Cuba, for example, with the approval of the Family Code in 2022, several rights that favor lesbian couples were included, such as equal marriage, assisted reproduction, and adoption. On September 28 of this year, Decree 96, an action protocol that prevents and addresses harassment and discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation, gender identity, among others, in the workplace, also came into force. Despite this, in real life the changes are not so evident. “In Cuba, sexist and patriarchal thoughts and attitudes continue to hold sway, which is why lesbian women continue to be victims of hatred and discrimination. We are frowned upon in the street, we are offended and insulted,” says Irina León Valladares, Cuban activist and member of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR).

In the same vein, Annery Rivera Velasco, independent journalist, and Cuban activist mentioned that “the setbacks –that are more like the normal state of affairs—are social characteristics, as it is part of our sexist and patriarchal society.” Additionally, she said that in Cuba a lesbian movement does not exist due to disarticulation, since Cuban authorities criminalize people who work for the defense of human rights.

Colombia also has broad legal protections for lesbians. Its Constitutional Court has granted transcendental protections, one of them being the historic recognition of LGBTI+ people in the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Likewise, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2016 in favor of same-sex marriage.

However, there is still much work to be done so that norms are translated into actions, especially “in relation to reproductive rights, the right to life due to the rise in corrective rape and lesbofeminicide. In addition, discrimination and/or harassment at work due to lesbian sexual orientation,” said Sami Arizabaleta, activist, and director of the Afrodescendent Foundation for Social and Sexual Diversities (Somos Identidad).

“As a lesbian movement we are politically influencing the updating of the LGBTQI policy, with recognition of intersectional lesbian contexts. The strategies are diverse from the regional and social contexts, but in general terms we are advancing in organizational strengthening, political advocacy from the enforceability of rights, denunciations, and dialogue for the adoption of measures,” shares Sami.

In the case of Peru, a country mired in a deep political, social, and institutional crisis, the illegitimacy of the government and the Congress of the Republic prevails. According to the last poll by the Institute of Peruvian Statistics (IEP), around 80% of the population demands the resignation of the president of the Republic, Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress and new elections.

Both the legislative and executive branches of government have promoted initiatives against the rights of lesbians, LGBTI+ people, women, children, and adolescents. In addition, several congressional members have presented various bills seeking Peru’s withdrawal from the Pact of San José. “The rights of lesbians have been completely ignored by the current government of Dina Boluarte and the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP),” says Gabriela Zavaleta, lesbian feminist activist and advocacy coordinator of Más Igualdad.

She also mentions that the Working Group for the Promotion of Lesbian Rights of the MIMP has been deactivated and that for more than 5 years the approval of the investigation on the situation of lesbian rights in Peru has been postponed. “Only civil society organizations are resisting this situation, promoting the national and international articulation of lesbian organizations, carrying out advocacy actions before the CEDAW Committee for a general recommendation on lesbian rights, systematizing the proposals and demands of the organizations, and making efforts to unite lesbian organizations in a regional agenda that serves as a tool for advocacy with the different States and relevant institutions”, she indicates.

In general, various countries in Latin America have achieved significant legislative advances in the recognition of LGBTI+ rights. However, much work remains to guarantee that these rights are fully recognized and respected.

In light of this, Race and Equality highlights some recommendations for States in order to protect the rights of lesbians.

  • Guarantee the right to family and civil rights for lesbians through legal recognition of lesbian mothers and diverse families.
  • Guarantee access to equal marriage and keep unrestricted respect for rights acquired abroad.
  • Develop mechanisms to avoid the criminalization of lesbian mothers in child custody proceedings.
  • Strengthen training programs for State officials in order to guarantee the dignified treatment of lesbians in public services.
  • Implement Comprehensive Sexual Education policies that guarantee respect for sexual diversity.
  • Record, document, and analyze violence against lesbians to formulate policies that respond to their needs.
  • Guarantee access to justice andnvestigate and punish discrimination and crimes committed against lesbians.
  • Promote the access of lesbians to political spaces and positions of power in order to guarantee the right to political participation without violence and the representation of identities.
  • Implement programs of attention and containment for cases of violence due to prejudice inside and outside the home.

[1] Ochy Curiel (2007). Un encuentro trascendente e histórico. Available at: https://rebelion.org/un-encuentro-trascendente-e-historico/

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