“The situation of violence against Afro-LGBTI people is invisible and systematic in Latin America” Activists warn the IACHR

Quito, Ecuador. November 12, 2019. In the thematic hearing held during the 174 period of Hearings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Quito, Ecuador, LGBTI activists and Afro-descendants from Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Peru presented on the situation of violence, lack of protection, and lack of knowledge of their prevailing rights in each of these States.

Throughout the space, the activists highlighted how Afro-descendants with sexual orientations and non-normative gender identities are at greater risk of suffering from violations of their rights, especially by the States’ general lack of knowledge on the differentiated effects suffered by people living this reality.

Likewise, the activists presented a summary of different cases of murder and violence against transgender people and Afro-descendants, especially those committed with a high degree of cruelty and hatred; in addition to remaining completely unpunished.

“In January of this year, in Brazil, a trans woman had her heart torn out and then replaced by the image of a saint. Her murderer was acquitted of the charge, even though he narrated in great detail how he had killed her and kept her heart at home with a smile on his face,” said Afro-Brazilian activist Bruna Benavides, a member of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals, or ANTRA in Brazil.

According to information given by Benavides, this year alone, 110 trans people were killed in Brazil, 85% of them black. Likewise, the activist reported that 90% of the population of transvestites and trans women in this country are engaged in prostitution due to the lack of job opportunities.

Furthermore, she pointed out that this group of people are recurring victims of different State institutions due to the inaccessibility of appropriate healthcare services and of fair employment opportunities and recognition, as well as having a lack of respect for their identities. In this regard, Benavides added ,“… today we are afraid to walk the streets again, and as a defender of human rights, I do not feel safe despite the progress we have made because our leaders have common policies of racist hatred , male chauvinism…”

In this order, the leader Justo Arevalo representative of the Colombian organizations Arco Iris de Tumaco, the National Conference of Afro-Colombian Organizations (CNOA), and Somos Identidad, highlighted that contexts of rejection, violence, and discrimination within these communities towards people who assume a non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity create other types of cyclical and systemic violence that threaten the integrity of AfroLGBTI people. An example of this is in Colombia, where there is forced displacement towards cities that sharpen the circles of violence in which these people live.

“In March of 2019, a report on the realities experienced by Afro-LGBTI people was filed in Bogotá before the Jurisdiction for Peace, whose main findings show that documented violence and impact are blocked by very racial and class-particular relations, typical of the sociocultural, economic, and political environment in which they occur, prejudice as a factor of violence, and the responsibility of illegal armed actors in the face of serious violations of rights against Afro LGBT people, “Arevalo added in his speech.

Belén Zapata, an Afro-descendant trans activist from Peru, alerted the audience of the impact that police abuse has on the lives of Afro-descendant and transvestite people, highlighting that it sets a pattern of deep violence against their right to personal integrity in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Peru.

Likewise, the activist referred to the access of healthcare services by trans-descendant Afro-descendant women in the region, which is characterized in its generality for not being efficient or worthy of use by this population.

In this regard, the activist added: “There are still cases in which medical personnel offer inadequate and/or improper care to Afro-descendant transgender women. This pattern is particularly serious in cases of care for Afro-descendant transgender women who perform sex work and are taken in for injuries as a result of physical aggressions. But also, in cases where the request for other services is related to reproductive health or HIV / AIDS. “

Violation of the rights of Afro-LGBTI people is systematic

“As long as we avoid highlighting the intersection between race and sexual diversity, we will continue to perpetuate a system that makes the Afro-descendant LGBTI community invisible; we will continue to have legal structures, public policies, and government institutions that do not protect or guarantee the human rights of the Afro LGBTI population,” added Katherine Ventura, representative of the American University Legal Clinic. She also pointed out that there are patterns of violence that are particular to the Afro-LGBTI population, naming three: 1) Absence of rights’ guarantees focused on the Afro-LGBTI community; 2) Lack of implementation of existing laws and 3) Inadequate data collection, particularly in criminal investigation processes against Afro-LGBTI people.

On this matter, the Commissioners of the IACHR indicated the responsibility of the States to collect data, generate policies, and promote processes that guarantee the reparation, respect, and recognition of the rights of Afro-LGBTI people. In this regard, Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay urged States to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination as an alternative that seeks to address the issues of Afro-descendants with sexual orientations and non-normative gender identities.

To finalize the hearing, the organizations requested that the IACHR to urge the States of Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Peru to:

1. Urgently investigate cases of homicide and police abuse that involve Afro-LGBTI persons and, consequently, register and characterize them properly.

2. Implement the recommendations of the Afro-LGBTI population that this Commission has made since 2015, particularly those focused on the development of public policies that explicitly include the Afro-LGBTI population.

3. As part of the fulfillment of the objectives proposed in the Decade of Afro-descendants 2015-2024, the Afro-LGBTI population should be included as a beneficiary of justice and development-oriented measures in the region, and it should be requested that all states comply with the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission regarding the importance of providing differentiated data on sexual orientation and gender identity.

4. Suggest the ratification of the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerances and the Inter-American Convention against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance to all States.

5. That the Inter-American Commission publish the report of the on-site visit to Brazil in 2018 and the rapporteur on the rights of Afro-descendants and racial discrimination visit Brazil to better know the situation of the Afro-LGBTI population, with effective participation of civil society organizations.

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Víctor Madrigal: “States should consider that the valuable contributions of LGBTI people to the construction of the social fabric is one of the ways to guarantee their recognition and inclusion”

In his most recent report, the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Víctor Madrigal, presented an analysis of the ways in which discriminatory laws and social and cultural norms continue to marginalize and exclude people because of their sexual orientation and / or gender identity in different spheres of society, situations that according to the document, are aggravated when interrelated with other forms of discrimination such as ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, and national origin, among others that lead to definitive states of exclusion and marginalization.

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) spoke with the Independent expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity so that, in the light of the reality that Latin American people live, he could present some considerations on the LGBTI situation, the multiple forms of violence they experience today, and present proposals that make it possible to overcome these forms of exclusion.

What is the current situation of LGBTI people in Latin America, how would you characterize it, and what is your interpretation of the current legal situation of LGBTI people in Latin America?

Víctor Madrigal (VM): The problem faced by the human rights of LGBTI people is conditioned, first by a historical framework that has been built over centuries, systems of exclusion and stigma that are based on notions about what the roles that people acquire should be according to their genital configuration. The idea here is to try to understand what these structures are, understand, in addition to what ways in which power is structured in society, and thus understand how the realities of LGBTI people, which are subversive to these systems built over decades and centuries, are violated through frameworks that are intended to defend these power structures.

What the Mandate has done throughout this time, is study the basic causes of stigma and discrimination and come to understand that there are certain structural manifestations: the first is what is known as the “denial” related to the existing idea in some legal systems (or the political message that has been tried to spread), that LGBT people do not really exist in that particular context, justifying their position on the premise that these are ideas imported from some other context.

The second manifestation or mechanism is that of “stigma,” which I have organized into three categories: First, the claim that LGBT existence is criminal in nature, that is, through crime or of criminal legislation. At this moment, there are still 69 countries in the world that criminalize homosexuality, and of these 9 are in the Caribbean Region. Another is the idea that the lives of LGBT people are sinful in nature. Hence the whole structure of the church that is used to create messages of exclusion and discrimination, and the last manifestation or mechanism is the idea of pathologizing, which is connected with the basic idea that LGBTI existence is in some way or another sick or a reflection of pathologies.

The phenomenology of the human rights problems faced by LGBT people is registered in this context and is deeply rooted in patriarchal structure, in social structures that are prevalent in Latin America and that have, as a result, very high levels of social exclusion and violence.

In the report on “Data collection and management as a means to raise awareness about violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity” A / HRC / 41/45 lays out the use of data as part of the strategy of overcoming these contexts and discrimination of violence. Could you explain a little, how is this expressed?

Víctor Madrigal: The context in which I pose this is my conviction that the processes of stigma are based on preconceptions, prejudices, and an exploitation of concerns that the general public have about the very existence of LGBT people, that it is not based on any empirical basis, or in other words, that it is not based on evidence, and therefore, I consider that the strategy to counteract these prejudice structures is through the production of evidence and with this data is essential.

When I started working at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and created the LGBT Rapporteurship, one of the first things we did was create a record of violence, and we realized, for example, that problems of violence against trans women were completely invisible in the data, and therefore in public policy. This is because trans women who were killed, and violently, were usually registered in the police records as men, therefore there was a complete invisibility of their problems from the viewpoint of public policy, but also in regard to social consciousness. The messages were very powerful from every level. The fact that there was no data disaggregated from this population’s point of view, no recognition of the existence of this population at the base of this violence was powerful, but there were also very powerful messages by means of written media that constantly reported murders of trans women as murders of a man dressed as a woman, or a transvestite man, or a man automatically labeled as a sex worker, in short, a number of pre-concepts that didn’t really have any foundation from an empirical base.

So for me, the creation of an evidence base, which allows us to reflect on the true nature of this violence problem, but also the true nature of the social existence of LGBT people, is an essential part of solving the issue.

According to his latest report on socio-cultural and economic inclusion of the population (https://undocs.org/A/74/181), which aspects do you consider the most fundamental for civil society and the States in Latin America?

Víctor Madrigal: On the basis of everything, there is the production of knowledge regarding the reality of LGBTI people’s lives. I insist that obtaining disaggregated data that allows us to understand the situation of LGBT people in relation to education, health, housing, and other sectors highlighted in my report is essential. Without that knowledge base, without that evidence base, it will be absolutely impossible to have public policies that dialogue and impact these lived realities of LGBT people.

Next, it is important that there is a willingness to connect this empirical base with public policy. It is essential to ensure that public policy is informed by this base, but also that when it is being carried out there is a conscious exercise of involving communities, peoples, and populations that are being affected.

Every public policy maker must know in a very clearly the limitations on what we do not know about the realities of these populations. Meanwhile, bringing them into the consultation processes, conducting participatory processes, is the only way to ensure that public policies will have a sustainable impact.

A third element would be related to the fact that in these processes there are very clear political manifestations about the way in which States receive and promote the message of the lives and realities of LGBT people, as long as they consider that they contribute to the social fabric, that they are valuable and worthy of existing in the social fabric, and that the ability and possibility of these people to live free and equal in the context of these societies is a manifestation of their human rights, which are not special rights, which are not unique rights, but it is an essential basis of their human right to be able to live in equality and freedom.

And on the basis of these conditions, I believe that the last element that must be there is the fact that the States recognize that, in these recognitions and in this way of proceeding, there is a fundamental key to ensuring the full potential of LGBT people’s contribution to our society, to enhance and make it possible to unleash and ensure the full potential of the social contribution of these people in our contexts.

Since the exercise of the mandate, you have had the experience of working with various LGBTI activists around the world. What particularities in activism, human rights violations or successful results have you been able to identify in racialized and / or impoverished LGBTI sectors?

Víctor Madrigal: I think that the first achievement to be highlighted is related to the strategic litigation regarding decriminalization. It is extraordinary what has been achieved through judicial activism, for example, in dismantling criminalization systems in India, in the Caribbean itself we have the example of Trinidad and Tobago, we have the example of Belize.

Other achievements that I could mention are related to the access of services and non-discrimination provisions.

I do not participate in the provision of policies for the creation and provision of the Mandate, but I have found it very important how the creation of civil society coalitions has created the mandate and now has gotten an extraordinary renewal through the coalition of more than 1300 civil society organizations that come from 174 countries and have really created a wonderful synergy so that the mandate could be renewed with a fairly forceful majority in the international community. I also believe that networking is a great achievement for the impact on the enforceability of LGBT rights.

If there is any evidence from the last 25 years of experience, it is that social change is possible in our generation. We have gone from contexts of criminalization and pathologizing to contexts of dignity, and I believe that energy of changes, that the change of paradigms is something that can be expected to continue. For the next 25 years, I have the expectation that there will be a world free of criminalization for 2030 and the expectation of a world in which there will be true social inclusion for the next generation.

XXIII National Meeting of the National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals(ANTRA): “Addressing Prejudice and Stigma with Combined HIV Prevention”

Last week, October 28-31, the 23rd national meeting of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (ANTRA) took place, a network of Brazilian trans organizations working to promote the rights of transgender people. The meeting’s theme was “Addressing Prejudice and Stigma with Combined HIV Prevention,” and was attended by around 60 trans activists representing all 21 states of Brazil.

The meeting took place in the city of Tapes, 108km from Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The option of holding the national meeting outside of the main metropolitan areas of the country was due to the great invisibility of human rights violations that occur far from large urban centers where all major events occur. Indeed, during the meeting, many activists reported their precarious conditions for reporting human rights violations and for giving visibility to the murders that occur without any media coverage.

“Throughout Brazil, inland cities are largely abandoned by all LGBTI policy managers and portfolios. We must have a more direct and incisive look at this population which is so devoid of rights. This is why we need to do more actions outside of the principal cities. ” Pitty Barbosa, from the city of Iguaíba which is located in the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul, affiliated with ANTRA

Due to a lack of resources, the meeting did not happen two years ago. Besides this, unlike in other years in which it was possible to hold regional meetings prior to the national ones, there were no resources or structure to hold the regional meetings, which made it impossible to gain a deeper understanding before the debates.

HIV epidemic in Brazil

Brazil is currently experiencing a new HIV epidemic. According to the latest data from the epidemiological bulletin released annually by the Ministry of Health, between 2007 and 2017, the number of young people infected with HIV jumped from 1,320 to 10,618, a growth of about 700%.

However, the alarming increase in the number of cases of HIV infections, AIDS illness and deaths due to opportunistic diseases has not reached all sections of the population in a homogeneous way. AIDS in Brazil has class, race, gender and sexuality.

For example, by analyzing data on race / color and gender categories over the past 10 years for AIDS deaths, major discrepancies are observed. While, in the last 10 years, white men and women have experienced a large reduction in the number of deaths from 5461 in 2007 to 4352 in 2017, the same has not happened for the black population. In 2007 there were 5111 deaths of black men and women, while in 2017 the number rose to 6699.

A similar movement is observed if we look at infections by sexuality. In 2007 heterosexual men accounted for 46.7% (1230) of those exposed to HIV in Brazil, and in 2017 they represented 34.1% (9027). Men who have sex with men, in turn, went from 45% (1569) to 63.3% (16633) in the same time period, becoming a large majority, and showing that there was a failure in prevention.

Representatives of the Ministry of Health who attended the ANTRA meeting mentioned a recently commissioned survey by the Ministry that estimated that today about 40% of Brazil’s population of transvestites and transgender women live with HIV. However, throughout the epidemiological bulletin, there is no mention of transgender people.

This unfeasibility reveals how cis-heteronormativity is positioned as the universal parameter of Brazilian institutions, which are not committed to the lives of trans people in the country.

This is because transvestites and transgender women are, as a rule, allocated to the category of “men who have sex with men” unless, in theory, they have been able to rectify their name and sex on the civil registry.

In any case, the ANTRA meeting was an opportunity for the various activists who were present to learn, on one hand, about the mechanisms of combined HIV prevention, asking which strategies make the most sense for the reality of transvestites and transsexuals, who do not have the same level of information and access to state resources as cis white gay men living in urban centers.

Also, several difficulties that this population faces in their day-to-day life concerning the healthcare system were shared, such as: people who had their serology exposed to their communities, doctors who missed their appointments on the day that their viral load would occur, health professionals who did not have the antiretroviral drug on the day they should get the drugs, among many other things that have an impact on transvestites and transgender women’s ability to gain access to HIV treatment in Brazil. At a time when the fundamentalist conservatism that has been growing in Brazil has been trying to curb HIV prevention campaigns so as not to “sexualize” young people, the organizations that attended the ANTRA meeting were unanimous about the need for support for prevention policies that can come through, directly to the population that needs it the most.

The lives of transgender people cannot be set aside. Race and Equality remains committed to supporting organizations working to combat racism, machismo, and LGBTI phobia in the country, also when expressed at an institutional dimension. We congratulate the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals for the event, and call on the Brazilian State to promote specifics aimed at facing the HIV / AIDS epidemic at a time when the black, LGBT, and especially the trans population has been so hit by this epidemic.

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Autor:
Isaac Porto, Consultor LGBTI de Raza e Igualdad en Brasil

The struggles of being Transgender and Afro-descendant in Colombia

The Trans Support and Action Group Foundation (GAAT, for its initials in Spanish), in partnership with ICASO, carried out the event “Transcending Barriers: Rights and full citizenship for people with experience of trans life” from the 16^th to the 19^th of September 2019. This event was attended by trans activists from eleven different regions of Colombia that met in Bogotá to discuss how their human rights are being guaranteed, what are the barriers they struggle with to access services, and how to create some strategies to overcome these challenges.

The event was also attended by five Afro-descendant activists with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities -four trans women and a non-binary person- from the departments of Tolima, Valle del Cauca, Atlántico, Chocó and the municipality of Montes de María; who addressed their reflections from the experiences that frame their reality as Afro-trans people living in Colombia.

Among the comments highlighted by the activists was the latent discrimination they live with in their territories, generated by barriers to access to different rights such as health, education, and work.

“… the Constitutional Court ruled that trans people who wanted legal recognition of their gender identity in their EPS could do it, and this issue is still a complication in the territory…” Afro-trans Chocó activist.

“… In hospitals as elsewhere, there is not yet a focus on differential care for trans men and trans women. So, that makes (going to) the doctor a complete torture, […] the treatments that one can already follow, but then they give you a lot of obstacles and paperwork, and in such a way that finally you get tired and don’t go to receive your hormones, or go to the doctor at all… ” Afro trans non-binary activist from Valle del Cauca.

The activists also denounced teachers and classmates who use strong dynamics of discrimination in educational spaces; in addition, they stated that there are policies that deny the gender identity of diverse people, because authorities refuse to issue official documents with the identifying names of those people.

Regarding the guarantees of access to work, the leaders expressed that there are no labor inclusion policies for trans people, therefore, they are not even interviewed for the positions they aspire to have, or there are more requirements imposed on them – such as the completion of multiple courses – to delay their applications.

“… Work for transgender people in my municipality is very scarce. It is something sad, because there we talk about labor inclusion [but] a trans girl […] just for having her male name on her ID, is called by her masculine name, not by her identifying name […] When [whoever is in charge of the job interview] enters, [says] ‘what a shame, the interview cannot be done because you appear under another name’.” Afro trans activist from Montes de María.

“Our race is also a cause of violence and a factor that generates new dynamics of discrimination and marginality,” said one of the Afro-trans activists, referring to the differentiated violence that Afro-descendant women face in comparison to the rest of the population classified as “mestizo white.” Accordingly, the leaders referred to a social and state discourse that denies the existence of racism and systems of structural discrimination by pointing out that racism has diminished or does not exist. This creates an invisibility of their identities in official statistics.

“… In the prosecutor’s office or in any other entity, they do not take the time to ask one how one identifies oneself […] I realized this through a process that I took to the prosecutor’s office […] I had the right to say that I am an Afro-descendant trans person. I went to the official, I approached and told him. [He replied:] ‘But you have to understand that everyone is recognized as white or mestizo. There is no Afro.’” Afro trans activist from Montes de María

Structural racism is also illustrated by the stratification of the territories, where Afro people inhabit the poorest areas, and those who have a better standard of living do so through a lot of work or association with mestizo white people. Because of this situation, there is a lack of the guarantee of rights in places predominantly inhabited by Afro people. In turn, this barrier is accentuated when Afro people also have diverse sexual orientations or gender identities because their violence becomes more complex.

“We could say that you have to take sides, or defend yourself as an afro person, or defend yourself as a diverse person, but not both, impossible, that would be death”. Afro trans activist from the Caribbean.

Systematic forms of psychological violence and discrimination in the territories are other situations that, according to the stories told by the leaders, violate the integrity and rights of Afro-trans people. “Generally, the first thing that is affected is self-esteem, because to understand that they begin to look at you first, to judge you without even knowing you, sometimes simply because of your skin color, that is brutal. And the other thing is that […] you have your hair and you have your afro, and they come to want to touch your hair without asking, that is already violent because they are invading your space and they don’t even ask,” details non-binary Afro trans leader from Valle del Cauca.

Finally, within their own family, or even in spaces shared with LGBTI people, their ideas are not validated by their peers in the same way as the ideas of their white mestizo companions and counterparts.

“If you are black, it is a proposal, but if you are white, the proposal is validated.” GAAT Executive Director.

Given the various structural problems that undermine and deepen the circles of poverty, racism, discrimination, and marginalization of Afro people with diverse sexual identities and orientations, activists pointed out the importance of creating spaces in the territories that reinforce the ideas of family building, outside the “traditional-conventional” biological form that reduces the construction of the family bond to the consanguinity traits of family members. In addition, they proposed the creation of policies for access to health, work and education for trans people.

At the same time, they pointed out that the State institutions require pedagogies and trainings regarding the Afro-trans issues with a territorial focus. “These activities must be directed by people who are empathic with the issue in order to create much deeper discussions and lessons,” stressed the activists. They also said that it is important that there is greater empowerment of new Afro-trans leaderships, and pointed out relevant ways that social organizations should strive to create greater spaces of inclusion for Afro people who understand first-hand the specific complexity of their daily lives in the territories.

The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) was invited by GAAT to hold a short workshop during the afternoon of September 16th. This invitation was motivated by the need found by the executive direction of the organization to incorporate the relationship and intersection of gender identity with ethnic-racial belonging into the agendas, activisms, and work with communities. The workshop was composed of a brief reference to the existence and activities carried out by the Afro-LGBTI Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as a series of findings from documentary reviews made by the member organizations of the Network. Thus, we deepened the need for the incorporation of intersectional approaches in trans activism, referring to situations in which structural racism, together with the dynamics of prejudice against LGBTI people, increase the vulnerability of people who find themselves mostly in contexts of poverty and without protection from the State.

At Race and Equality, we celebrate the completion of these types of conferences in which our counterparts can establish working relationships, as well as expand their relationships, with activisms that work tirelessly for the defense of transgender rights. . We also highlight the growing interest and commitment in the visibility and social and political impact of the rights situation for Afro-LGBTI people. We believe that this type of interaction is essential for new human rights activists and organizations present in the different regions of Colombia to start creating intersectional analysis efforts from their own agendas.

Brazil: 15 Killings of Transgender Persons Reported in September

Transgender people in Brazil continue to be killed at an extremely concerning rate. According to the National Association of Travestis and Transexual People (ANTRA), 15 trans people were killed in Brazil in September alone, an average of one every 48 hours. From January 1 to September 30 of this year, 89 transgender people have been killed across the country. In the majority of these killings, evidence of extreme violence is present, as seen in the following examples:

On September 15, the body of 26-year-old travesti Bruna Torres was discovered in the state of Sao Paulo.[1] Bruna’s throat had been slit while her hands and feet were tied.

On September 20, the body of Médely Razard, a 15-year-old transgender girl, was found in a wooded area in the Sao Paulo metro area. Médely was found with a gag in her mouth and signs of physical trauma. The police concluded that she was sexually assaulted and killed by strangulation with a cord.

The body of travesti Junia Bispo was found on September 29 in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, showing various signs of a violent attack including thirteen stab wounds.

In August of this year, as ANTRA submitted the report Killings and Violence Against Travestis and Transsexual People in Brazil: 2018 to Inter-American Human Rights Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, the organization’s Secretary of Political Relations Bruna Benevides said:

“This dossier is stained with blood and based above all on a cry for help. What more can we do as institutions, companions, organizations and movements to prevent other travestis, trans women and men and non-binary people from being killed for who they are?”

More transgender people are killed in Brazil than in any other country, with 163 such cases recorded in 2018. It is clear that trans people in Brazil live in a context of great violence and that the Brazilian state is not achieving, or even seeking to achieve, protection of trans people’s lives.

As Brazil experiences a serious political backlash against the LGBTI population, it is essential to bring attention to the danger that trans people face and their basic struggle to survive. As part of Race and Equality’s continued commitment to equality and justice, we call upon the Brazilian state to investigate these deaths and guarantee that all Brazilians can freely express their sexual orientation and gender identity.

[1] Travesti is a category of gender identity frequently used in Latin American countries. It describes a person who is assigned a male gender at birth and assumes a feminine gender role, sometimes through “feminizing” body modifications such as hormone therapy, breast implants or silicone injections.

Stop killing us! Grupo Conexão G from Favela da Maré in Brazil

The first-ever LGBTI Culture and Citizenship Festival of the Favelas was held from September 6-8, in the midst of a police operation that lasted almost 20 hours and left two people dead, leading the community of Maré to cry out, “Deixem de nos matar!” [“Stop killing us!”].

Since 2006, Grupo Conexão G has been carrying out vital work in Complexo da Maré, a conglomerate of 19 favelas located in Rio de Janeiro among the city’s main access roads and close to the international airport. In 2010, when the last census was taken by the federal government, Maré had about 130,000 inhabitants.

Maré is one of the most dangerous favelas in Brazil. Completely controlled by drug traffickers, Maré is constantly in a state of warfare among rival gang factions and the police. This logic and mindset of war is perpetuated by a drug-fighting discourse that criminalizes the entire favela population. In a scenario in which this population is systematically denied rights such as health, education, work and leisure, among others, the main relationship between these people and the state is one of violence.

Conexão G was the first organization in Brazil that began working directly and exclusively with the LGBTI population of the favela. Since its birth, the organization has carried out projects aimed at public safety, employability, health, education and culture for the Black LGBTI population. Intersectionality is a key guiding principle of the organization’s work.

In a conversation with Race and Equality, Gilmara Cunha, a transgender woman who is the founder and director of Conexão G, said that when the organization came into existence in 2006, LGBTI people lived in a context of great violence and oppression at the hands of other favela inhabitants – a context that persists to this day:

“At that time, and even today, we were experiencing a lot of violence and oppression from other inhabitants. We could not participate in some spaces, because we were physically and verbally attacked. One of the most memorable moments was when a group of travestis [a Portuguese word describing a variety of feminine gender expressions] went to a place where they were playing samba music, and some people started throwing onions and sticks at us and we had to flee. From there, we thought: ‘something needs to be done to transform this reality and transform the politics of the LGBT movement,’ which was and still is a middle-class movement. At this moment we started coming up with an agenda that could actually attend to and include the favela population, because today’s policies are designed for the middle class and these policies do not reach us”, she said.

As an example, Gilmara cites the recent decision by the country’s Supreme Court to equate homophobia with the crime of racism:

“See, homophobia has been criminalized and equated with the crime of racism. But if we are in this area [the favela] and make a report, the police will not come here. If the police do come, that puts our lives at risk, because everyone knows each other and will know who made the report.”

In fact, in many cases, people that live in favelas are forbidden by traffickers to go to the police if their problems might lead to an investigation, in order to prevent the police from challenging traffickers’ control of their territory.

The 1st LGBT Culture and Citizenship Festival of the Favelas: Marked by Police Aggression

Since 2010, Conexão G has held the Favela da Maré LGBTI Parade every year. This year, besides the Parade, they also held the 1st LGBTI Culture and Citizenship Festival of the Favelas, an event with various components that combined art, culture, fashion, sustainability, politics and entrepreneurship. The activities were held from September 6 to 8, ending with the LGBTI Parade.

However, on the first day of the event, a police operation took place in Favela da Maré. The operation lasted about 20 hours and resulted in two people being killed.

Such police operations are one of the main issues facing Favela da Maré. The current government of Rio de Janeiro has adopted a policy within the favelas that can truly be described as “slaughter,” with police officers shooting indiscriminately from helicopters. As a result, from January to June of this year, 881 people were killed in police operations in Rio de Janeiro state – the highest number in the last 17 years.

The police operation affected the schedule of Conexão G’s event and endangered the attendees

“It is a war that is not against drugs, but against the poor, black and favela population. For example: yesterday there were 2 people murdered, several houses were broken into. This affected our schedule during this week, especially on the first day. There was shooting all the time. We got stuck at the Maré Arts Center and couldn’t leave. This makes me wonder: what kind of state is this that does not consider this space as part of the city? The feeling is not only of fear, but also a feeling that nothing can be done. But we are there in the resistance,” said Gilmara.

Mariah Rafaela, another trans women that works for Conexão G and with the Instituto Transformar, was also present, and said:

“It was terrible. When we realized that the police were entering the favela and we started to hear the sound of gunshots, we were certainly very worried about the physical safety of the people who had come to attend the event. There were many shots and we had to cancel the activities. We closed the gate and we were trapped inside, waiting for the shots to end or to have a short moment to get out of where we were. It is very difficult to carry out this work in Maré, but we will continue to persist.”

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A post shared by Maré Vive oficial (@marevive) on Sep 6, 2019 at 12:22pm PDT

For this reason, the Favela LGBTI Parade, held on September 8, was marked by demands against police violence. Gilmara Cunha proclaimed:

“This state kills us every day! Stop killing us! We are here claiming for lives! We lived for these days practically in total violence, where police entered our homes, murdered inhabitants, and we cannot allow that to happen! Maré is part of this city! We can’t accept it as if it was normal! Enough! Stop! Stop killing our poor, favela population! We are here to claim rights! Being here today is an act of resistance!”

Gilmara Cunha also reported that, given the Brazilian political scenario, this will be the last year that the Favela da Maré Parade is held. “For now, it’s the last parade. God only knows what the scenario will be like next year”, she said.

Race and Equality recognizes that the lives of the LGBTI favela’s population requires special attention and visibility and congratulates Conexão G for their courageous action in the face of the great context of violence in Brazil’s favelas.

We will continue to work for the documentation, visibility and denunciation of the human rights situation of the black and marginalized LGBTI population in Brazil, and we demand that the Brazilian State guarantee the right of this population and also guarantee the necessary security for Conexão G’s work in Favela da Maré.

Deixem de nos matar!: Grupo Conexão G da Favela da Maré

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We condemn aggresion against transgender activist in Nicaragua and demand an exhaustive investigation

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) and the Colombian organization Caribe Afirmativo (Affirmative Caribbean) condemn the attack against Ludwika Vega, a trans woman who serves as coordinator of the Asociación Nicaragüense de Transgeneras (ANIT – Transgender Association of Nicaragua), and demand that authorities carry out a thorough investigation of the incident.

According to information received by Race and Equality, two men riding a motorcycle arrived at ANIT’s office in Managua around 8:00pm on Tuesday, September 10^th and found Ludwika alone there. The men struck her with a stone, knocking out teeth and drawing blood. They proceeded to attack her with a sharp object, causing her five injuries: one to her chest, three to her back and one to her side. The perpetrators also stole Ludwika’s laptop computer and handbag.

After the attack, Ludwika was taken to a hospital and is now in recovery from her injuries.

ANIT is an organization that works to promote and defend the rights of transgender women through educational programs on human rights and through advocacy work in various fora.

Ludwika has been a crucial ally to Caribe Afirmativo during the organization’s Enterezas II [“strength of character”] program, which investigates gender-based violence and hate crimes against lesbian and bisexual women. She has built networks with lesbian, bisexual and trans women throughout civil society in order to carry out trainings, workshops and community organizing to demand human rights in Nicaragua.

Race & Equality and Caribe Afirmativo insist upon a thorough investigation of this crime, including investigation into the possibility that the crime was motivated by Ludwika and ANIT’s work in favor of human rights for trans women.

Impunity for attacks against trans women leads to further violence; Nicaraguan authorities must inform the community of the investigation’s findings and sanction the perpetrators to prevent such a cycle.

August 2019: alerts of violence against LGBTI persons in Colombia

Threats against Bogotá social leader

During the first week of August, threats against the security of LGBTI social leader Leonardo Fabio made nationwide news.

Fabio, who is 25 years old and works with community action groups defending the rights of LGBTI persons, received printed flyers signed by the AUC and Águilas Negras threatening to ‘disappear’ him for being a “marica leader” and a “defender of maricas” and “those who shouldn’t be defended.”

Fabio was later attacked and beaten, and although he requested assistance from the National Office of Protection, the Office’s approval process will last at least three months. Currently, local police are conducting visits to verify his safety. However, while under this protection, Fabio has found new pamphlets at his home threatening him for having gone to the authorities. The week of August 8^th, he was attacked by the same perpetrators as before. This time, he was loaded into a car, robbed of all his possessions and left in a field in Suba.

This situation reveals the concerning level of vulnerability that all people recognized as LGBTI leaders experience across Colombia. Fabio’s plight is all the more concerning given that he lives in the city where the government has the greatest ability to protect the safety of social leaders. The facts of his case make clear that not even in Bogotá can the authorities guarantee the safety of these leaders, who constantly suffer threats and attacks in retaliation for their human rights work.

The Caribbean Region: violence and resistance

The vulnerability of LGBTI Colombians and the lack of protections for this population are on full display in the Caribbean region, where two LGBTI persons were killed during August.

The first victim was reported during the afternoon of August 1^st. Ariel López Romero, a 43-year-old gay man, was found with his throat cut at his house in Soledad, Atlántico department. López was a language teacher and gave training workshops for the LGBT community at the Casa de Paz de Soledad through the organization Caribe Afirmativo.

According to Caribe Afirmativo, López had not previously received any threats. The group noted an increase in homicides against gay men in their homes, along with a general increase of violence against LGBTI persons in the Caribbean.

López’s homicide is the eighth recorded killing of an LGBTI person since 2018, according to the organization’s count. The organization’s presence in the region allows it to maintain a registry of these crimes, which would otherwise go unreported due to a lack of social organizations and of state action.

Daniela Martínez, a 53-year-old trans woman, was killed on August 21^st in the town of Cicuco, in the south of Bolivar department. Her homicide, in which three persons accosted her on the street and beat her with shoes, stones and other blunt objects, generated outrage in the community. The attack left her seriously injured; she ultimately died of wounds to her head.

According to Caribe Afirmativo, who made the initial report of her death, Martínez had also been attacked in public in May, when she was tied up and burned by her assailants. The organization contacted Colombian authorities to inform them of the facts of the case and ensure that the attack is investigated as part of a pattern of cruel and systematic violence.

Rights in Danger? Proposed law would affect same-sex marriage

Senator María del Rosario Guerra of the Centro Democrático party proposed a law that would extend the right of conscientious objection for religious, philosophical, ethical or moral objections to those acting in the name of legal persons or public institutions. This proposal, which will be debated in the coming months, represents a particular danger in cases wherein a notary could refuse to confirm same-sex marriages.

The proposal will generate a fierce debate in Congress, considering that the law would cover conscientious objection not only in this area, but also in disputed cases of abortion and euthanasia.

SANKOFA: “Back to the past to resignify the present”: The reality of Black transgender and travesti women in Brazil

The SANKOFA Forum, which brought Afro-Brazilian, trans and travesti (a term used to describe a variety of feminine gender expressions) women together with the female public defenders of Brazil, was held from August 15-16 in Rio de Janeiro. The Forum was a space for exchange and dialogue about struggles and successes in the fight for racial and gender justice. “Sankofa”, an African word for a symbolic two-headed bird, was chosen as the name of the forum to capture its mission of looking “back to the past to resignify the present.”

The Forum was organized by the Transformar Institute, ANTRA, CEJIL, Criola, Núcleo de Direitos Humanos da Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Forum Justiça, Fórum Estadual de Mulheres Negras, Defensoria Pública and the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights. Race and Equality also invited Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons of African Descent and against Racial Discrimination of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to the event.

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“The SANKOFA Forum is a space of (de)construction that was organized with the Office of the Public Defenders and with the support of Race and Equality, which made it possible to include various agencies and institutions, especially the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the person of Commissioner Margarete May Macaulay. Your presence allows us not to feel helpless and to feel that we can collectively build a narrative that can cross territorial barriers and borders and bring to light the importance of international insertion and the struggle of people who have always been in resistance, ”said Bruna Benavides of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (ANTRA, in Portuguese).

The forum drew on the voices and stories of activists, academics, human rights defenders, Quilombola communities and travesties, sex workers and trans people from two favelas in Brazil, who forcefully exposed the current situation of their human rights in light of the wave of violence that the country and especially these historically marginalized groups are facing.

“Giving access to justice must mean giving dignity to lives”

During the meeting days, the attendees discussed the existing possibilities for the full guarantee and exercise of their rights, highlighting that a constant state of racism, discrimination and extreme violence persists in Brazil. They also discussed that socially accepted “whitening” policies minimize the lives of black people and naturalize a state of white privilege in the country, making it impossible for the Afro-Brazilian and LGBTI community to participate in spaces of power. “Whites and cisgender people need to give space for Blacks and trans people to occupy the spaces of power,” said one activist.

“A state of exception has always existed in Brazil, because it has always been legitimate to kill black bodies and trans bodies,” Fatima Lima, a teacher of ethnic-racial studies.

During the Forum, Bruna Benavides from ANTRA officially submitted to Commissioner Macaulay the latest report on violence against the trans and travesti population in Brazil. This report shows a shocking number of murders, invisible in the national media, which continues to rank Brazil as the country with the most murders of trans people annually.

Regarding that report, Mariah Rafaela, a member of the Instituto Transformar e Conexão said: “There is a system that allows the death of trans and black people. The notion of justice must arise from the experience of people who have no minimum dignity to live. Giving access to justice must mean giving dignity to lives.”

On the other hand, Alessandra Ramos of the Transformar Institute raised the need to advance a resignification of what it means to be an Afro and “transgender” woman based on the experiences and representations of the people who inhabit these bodies. Furthermore, she expressed the need to overcome the characterizations of Afro and trans women that are assigned by white people, precisely because these women have historically been affected by the differentiated impacts of race and identity. She also warned that 38% of trans and travesti women in Brazil are estimated to live with HIV and that the group with the highest percentage of HIV-positive members is the trans community.

“Please, work with us!”: Margarette Macaulay, IACHR

During the Forum, Race and Equality facilitated private meetings between activists and Commissioner Macaulay. Carlos Quesada, the executive director of Race and Equality, and the organization’s Consultant for Brazilian LGBTI issues Isaac Porto also participated in these private meetings and heard first-hand about the violence that human rights activists are facing in the country’s most marginalized places.

Throughout the testimonies of the attendees, topics such as the mutilation of intersex children, the HIV situation among young people in Brazil, the increase in the murders of lesbian women and the difficulties of LGBTI people in accessing health, education, decent work and participation spaces were constantly referenced.

“I am not only black: I am a travesti, I am poor, I live in a favela. My activism began since I was born, because ever since then I have fought to survive,” said an Afro-Brazilian activist.

Commissioner Macaulay referred to the historical debt that the Brazilian State has to the Afro-descendant people victimized by slavery, a victimization that persists in today’s social structure due to the socio-racial hierarchies that prevent Afro-Brazilians from accessing and enjoying their rights. She also recalled the responsibility and obligations of the State as guarantor of people’s rights, regardless of their condition.

Addressing the civil society activists, Commissioner Macaulay pointed out the importance of submitting detailed accounts of cases of violence to the IACHR in order to illustrate the situation of human rights violations experienced by the Afro and LGBTI communities. She emphasized the importance of working together to overcome the serious rights crisis that Brazil is facing.

During the meeting spaces, Carlos Quesada reiterated his organization’s commitment to denouncing and documenting human rights violations, as well as the importance of technical strengthening of organizations to participate in international human rights spaces.

The SANKOFA forum is a space created to provoke dialogue between the Brazilian Public Defender’s Office and the black, trans and travesti women leaders of social movements and organizations. Its goals are to strengthen state institutions committed to the agenda of the country’s social movements, to expand the opportunities for training and articulation of leaders at the national level and finally, to serve as a resource to provide information to activists about international mechanisms for the protection of rights.

Statement: Race and Equality is committed to the accompaniment of social organizations in Brazil and their work documenting, denouncing and publicizing human rights violations within the Inter-American and Universal Systems, especially violations of the rights of Afro-Brazilian people and people with diverse sexual expressions and gender identities. Race and Equality recognizes that these people are victims of discrimination, marginalization and violence because of social structures that prevent the full enjoyment of their rights.

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Nicaraguan refugees living in Mexico and Central America held a summit in Costa Rica

San José, Costa Rica. From July 29^th to the 31^st, a group of LGBTI Nicaraguan refugees living in Mexico and Central America held a summit in San José, Costa Rica to promote discussion about the human rights of LGBTI refugees. In particular, the summit addressed violations and vulnerabilities resulting from workplace and housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In the course of the summit, which was organized by the Mesa LGBTI de Nicaragua with the support of Race and Equality, participants reiterated that the circumstances which caused them to leave Nicaragua, the precarity of their situation in their host country, and experiences of discrimination have all combined to harm their emotional and mental health. This reality has not yet been identified and addressed in the international response to Nicaragua’s crisis, despite the fact that depression has emerged as a common factor among refugees, as in the case of a young gay refugee who died of suicide in Costa Rica in July.

The majority of LGBTI refugees have been forced to leave Nicaragua due to threats over social media, political persecution, arbitrary detention, and in many cases grave violations of their human rights to liberty and to personal, bodily, and mental integrity. The summit highlighted both the importance of ensuring accountability for these violations in Nicaragua and the urgent need to support the integration of refugees in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Rights impacts

Attendees shared their experiences of fleeing Nicaragua, often with only days or hours to prepare and sometimes with as little as $40 on hand. Many suffer the emotional impacts of not being able to say goodbye to their friends and family. Refugees are also exposed to security risks on the journey itself: while traveling on irregular and informal routes, some refugees, particularly LGBTI women, reported threats to and violations of their sexual and bodily integrity.

Attendees also discussed their diverse experiences in the receiving countries. While the Costa Rican government has recognized its duty under international norms to integrate the sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) of refugees into its response, other countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have treated SOGI as irrelevant, causing friction between public officials and refugees.

All attendees, however, made clear that SOGI factors have had important impacts on their experiences, particularly in their daily efforts to claim and exercise human rights such as the right to housing. Verbal threats and harassment, spying and surveillance from neighbors, and denial of housing opportunities are daily occurrences for LGBTI refugees, particularly trans women and persons with non-binary gender expressions. This situation is compounded when locals refuse to rent to Nicaraguans for reasons of xenophobia.

Refugees have suffered similar violations of the right to work. In addition to the natural difficulty of finding work outside one’s own country, many trans women report that employers have forced them to change their gender expression in order to obtain employment. Many younger refugees have not yet finished their schooling, adding an additional difficulty to their search for employment. Together, these factors of precarity have led to “survival sex work” among some Nicaraguan refugees, who report that this work exposes them to sexual health risks.

Despite this adverse context, all attendees shared experiences of mutual support that they identify as crucial for their survival, including offers to share living space, initiatives to create common funds for refugees’ expenses, and support for each other’s gender identities and sexual orientation. These experiences demonstrate the need to maintain a network of LGBTI refugees and to articulate a strategy that demands rights for refugees in the receiving countries, recognizes the existence of a diaspora at the regional level, and seeks to allow refugees to return safely to Nicaragua with their human rights assured.

Future steps

To pursue this strategy, Race and Equality will combine our efforts with the Mesa LGBTIQ de Nicaragua and its chapter in Costa Rica to seek an audience with the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights regarding LGBTI refugees in the region. We also hope to continue working with our counterparts in Nicaragua and with Nicaraguans across the region to monitor their situation and pursue human rights documentation that will support our joint advocacy for their human rights.

“The situation of violence against Afro-LGBTI people is invisible and systematic in Latin America” Activists warn the IACHR

“The situation of violence against Afro-LGBTI people is invisible and systematic in Latin America” Activists warn the IACHR

Violation of the rights of Afro-LGBTI people is systematic

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Víctor Madrigal: “States should consider that the valuable contributions of LGBTI people to the construction of the social fabric is one of the ways to guarantee their recognition and inclusion”

XXIII National Meeting of the National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals(ANTRA): “Addressing Prejudice and Stigma with Combined HIV Prevention”

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Autor:Isaac Porto, Consultor LGBTI de Raza e Igualdad en Brasil

The struggles of being Transgender and Afro-descendant in Colombia

Brazil: 15 Killings of Transgender Persons Reported in September

Stop killing us! Grupo Conexão G from Favela da Maré in Brazil

“See, homophobia has been criminalized and equated with the crime of racism. But if we are in this area [the favela] and make a report, the police will not come here. If the police do come, that puts our lives at risk, because everyone knows each other and will know who made the report.”

The 1st LGBT Culture and Citizenship Festival of the Favelas: Marked by Police Aggression

The police operation affected the schedule of Conexão G’s event and endangered the attendees

We condemn aggresion against transgender activist in Nicaragua and demand an exhaustive investigation

August 2019: alerts of violence against LGBTI persons in Colombia

SANKOFA: “Back to the past to resignify the present”: The reality of Black transgender and travesti women in Brazil

“Giving access to justice must mean giving dignity to lives”

“A state of exception has always existed in Brazil, because it has always been legitimate to kill black bodies and trans bodies,” Fatima Lima, a teacher of ethnic-racial studies.

“Please, work with us!”: Margarette Macaulay, IACHR

“I am not only black: I am a travesti, I am poor, I live in a favela. My activism began since I was born, because ever since then I have fought to survive,” said an Afro-Brazilian activist.

Nicaraguan refugees living in Mexico and Central America held a summit in Costa Rica

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Autor:
Isaac Porto, Consultor LGBTI de Raza e Igualdad en Brasil