To celebrate Black History Month, Apple supports Race and Equality in its work for racial equity in the Americas

To celebrate Black History Month, Apple supports Race and Equality in its work for racial equity in the Americas

Washington, D.C., January 26th, 2021.– The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) has been chosen by Apple to be one of six organizations that will receive support to advance their work promoting racial equality in the U.S. and around the world. The announcement comes as Apple launches its initiative to celebrate Black History Month, including the launch of the Black Unity collection of the Apple Watch.

In announcing the collaboration, Race and Equality’s Executive Director Carlos Quesada remarked, “We are proud to take part in Apple’s global initiative to honor and celebrate Afro-descendant culture and history.” The other organizations that will receive support through the initiative are the Black Lives Matter Support Fund (via the Tides Foundation); European Network Against Racism; Leadership Conference Education Fund; NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.; and Souls Grown Deep.

Race and Equality is thankful for Apple’s recognition of our work defending and promoting the human rights of Afro-descendant people in the Americas. Our efforts will benefit greatly from this support. We pledge to continue our struggle for a more just and equitable society for all.

To learn more about Apple’s Black History Month initiative, click here.

Cuba: In response to Race and Equality’s request, IACHR grants precautionary measures to three members of the Citizens’ Committee for Racial Integration

Washington, D.C., January 22, 2021.– The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has granted precautionary measures to Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, Marthadela Tamayo González, and Osvaldo Navarro Veloz, three human rights defenders who are members of the Citizens’ Committee for Racial Integration (CIR, by its Spanish initials) in Cuba, having found that they face a situation of grave and imminent risk of irreparable damage to their human rights.

In its decision, the IACHR called upon the State of Cuba to adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the three activists’ rights to life, to personal integrity, to freedom of expression, and to carry out their work as human rights defenders without suffering violence or intimidation. These measures should be agreed upon in consultation with the beneficiaries.

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) filed the request for these precautionary measures in response to the threats, harassment, surveillance, detentions, and violent attacks that the CIR has documented against Juan Antonio, Marthadela, Osvaldo, and other CIR members. In granting the precautionary measures, the IACHR called upon Cuba to report how it plans to investigate these incidents within fifteen days.

Persecution against the CIR

The culmination of the persecution facing the CIR was the arbitrary detention of Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, its National Coordinator, on November 12, 2020. Agents of Cuba’s State Security forces raided his house in Havana and confiscated both personal and work-related materials from him and his sister. Juan Antonio was then detained and held incommunicado for over 18 hours.

Marthadela Tamayo González and Osvaldo Navarro Veloz have also suffered multiple incidents of repression, including being detained on November 22nd, 2020 during a peaceful protest in Havana’s Central Park. The protest was called to demand the release of Denis Solís, a musician and member of the San Isidro Movement who is being held as a political prisoner. Before being detained, the two were physically attacked by a pro-government group of civilians who disrupted the protest.

Race and Equality hopes that the State of Cuba will fulfill its international human rights treaty obligations by responding to the Commission’s requests and guaranteeing the safety of Juan Antonio, Marthadela, and Osvaldo. We also hope that the State will allow them to carry out their vital work as human rights defenders without suffering persecution, threats, or violence at the hands of police, State Security, or pro-government civilian groups.

Human Rights Day: Continuing on the path towards human rights for all

Washington, D.C.; December 10, 2020.- 72 years after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world has not yet achieved the full guarantee and enjoyment of each person’s inherent rights. In Latin America and the Caribbean, structures that contribute to human rights violations, particularly violations against historically marginalized populations, remain persistent and in some cases are worsening.

This December 10th, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) joins the international celebration of Human Rights Day by reviewing the human rights situation across the region, particularly the countries where we partner with civil society: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.

The killing of George Floyd

Race and Equality added our voice to the global outrage sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black U.S. citizen, at the hands four white police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th. Video of the tragedy on social media sparked indignation and a re-examination of the realities of racism and police brutality in the U.S.

We were heartened by the rapid and forceful response of the international human rights protection system to this travesty, including the June 17th Urgent Debate of the United Nations Human Rights Council on “the current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful protest” and the adoption of Human Rights Council Resolution 43/1. We are concerned, however, at the lack of follow-up effort to strengthen the various international human rights mechanisms’ ability to monitor States’ compliance with their obligations in this regard.

COVID-19: a multiplier of inequality

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever that economic inequality and inequality in access to health and education have deadly consequences across the region. It has also made clear that when States fail to design public policies with an intersectional approach, indigenous, Afro-descendant, and LGBTI populations who have suffered historical marginalization and discrimination are the hardest-hit.

In Brazil, for example, the Afro-Brazilian population has seen its most fundamental right to life threatened by the denialism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. Afro-Brazilians have been the population most negatively impacted by the current government’s refusal to implement proper public health measures. During the most critical months of the pandemic, Brazilian women were murdered at a rate of one every nine hours. Of these victims, 73% were Afro-descendant women.

Discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity has also manifested itself in the context of COVID-19. In Colombia, a trans woman and sex worker named Alejandra Monocuco died in late May after medical personnel refused to give her emergency care. The personnel, who had been called by Alejandra’s companions when she suddenly became unable to breathe, refused to approach her when they learned that she was HIV-positive and told her companions that she must have been suffering an “overdose.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has coincided with the 2020 Census in Mexico, a situation that Afro-Mexican activists fear has affected census-takers’ ability to collect trustworthy data on the Afro-descendant population. Particularly in parts of Mexico not normally thought of as Afro-Mexican population centers, low rates of self-identification among Afro-descendants can lead to undercounting.

Anti-LGBTI violence and hatred

Latin America continues to be the region with the most murders of trans people. In Brazil, where the current government continues to tolerate and encourage LGBTI-phobia, 151 trans people have been murdered this year. In Colombia, Race and Equality has worked with our grassroots partners to record 65 incidents of discrimination, harassment, assault, and murder against people with diverse sexual orientations and/or gender identities.

The refusal to recognize LGBTI people’s rights and respond to their demands for justice is concerning across the region. In Peru, for example, the Constitutional Court rejected Óscar Ugarteche’s effort to have his marriage to his husband Fidel Aroche, celebrated in Mexico in 2010, inscribed in the National Civil Registry. Peru also failed to account for the rights of trans and non-binary people when it implemented its quarantine policy known as pico y género,[1] leading to acts of discrimination against this population.

In Panama, civil society continues to demand that the government introduce a law legalizing marriage equality for legislative debate, while LGBTI organizations in the Dominican Republic are leading a campaign for a Law on Equality and Non-Discrimination to protect the rights of Afro-descendant and LGBTI people.

Human rights defenders continue to be murdered

Four years after the historic Final Peace Accords ended more than 50 years of armed conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels, the country is suffering one of the worst periods of violence in recent memory. The rise in violence is attributable to attacks against social leaders, human rights defenders, and ex-combatants participating in the peace program and to violent murders of civilians, such as the August 11th murder of five Young Afro-Colombian men in the Llano Verde neighborhood of Cali.

According to the Ideas for Peace Foundation (Indepaz), 287 murders of rights defenders have taken place this year as of December 7th. Indepaz reports that 688 such murders have taken place during the current administration of President Ivan Duque and a total of 1,086 have occurred since the signing of the Peace Accords. Colombian civil society continues to call for an urgent response on the part of the State, but President Duque’s government persists in prioritizing its own policy of “Peace with Legality” above the implementation of the Accords. This policy neglects vital elements of building sustainable peace, particularly women’s rights and the rights of ethnic minorities, which had been enshrined in the Accords’ groundbreaking “Ethnic Chapter.”

Repression of civil society

In Cuba, repression of activists, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders has increased as the government uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext for restricting the activities of independent civil society. Short-term detentions, raids and searches, confiscations of property, summary trials, and arbitrary criminal charges such as “contempt” or “public disorder” are all wielded against civil society leaders.

In Nicaragua, where the human rights crisis of April 2018 has not yet abated, authorities continue to persecute those who dissent from the current government. In the context of a public health and economic crisis sparked by COVID-19, this repression severely harms Nicaraguans’ fundamental rights. Currently, 109 people remain behind bars as political prisoners stemming from protests. Two recent laws (the Law on Foreign Agents and the Special La won Cybercrime) and the recent effort to punish “hate crimes” with life imprisonment pose acute threats to the freedoms of association, assembly, and expression.

Nicaraguan authorities continue to wield repression against those who demand accountability and respect for human rights. Along with their families, these rights defenders are threatened, monitored, and at times prevented from moving freely by the police. Meanwhile, an average of 40 violations of freedom of the press, including both physical attacks and persecution in the courts, are recorded each month.

On International Human Rights Day, Race and Equality reaffirms our commitment to building the capacities of in-country organizations to document human rights violations, defend their rights before the Inter-American and United Nations human rights systems, and advocate for reforms that will lead to the full enjoyment of human rights for all, without discrimination. We call upon all States to comply with their obligations to protect and promote human rights, obligations that are more pressing during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever.

We commit to continue our work advancing human rights for all people in the countries where we work, regardless of their race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or political beliefs. We salute the efforts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN treaty bodies, and the special procedures of the UN human rights system, and express our hope that they will remain steadfast in their work.

 

[1] Pico y género, which was also implemented in other parts of the region, called for women and men to leave the house on alternating days

World AIDS Day: Race and Equality calls for Brazil and Colombia to guarantee equality in HIV treatment

This December 1, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) honors and stands in solidarity with all people living with HIV on World AIDS Day. Established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 1987, with support from the United Nations (UN), the date aims to raise awareness and promote dialogue on sexual rights in an inclusive and responsive way for HIV prevention. In addition, this date aims to break stigmas about the reality of people living with the virus, being a day of visibility and solidarity.

Brazil: Structural racism and LGBTIphobia as barriers in the treatment of AIDS

In Brazil, throughout the month of December, the “Red December” awareness campaign is celebrated, symbolized by a red ribbon that, globally, represents solidarity and commitment in the fight against AIDS. However, the country, that was once a world reference for the treatment of AIDS, currently faces a dismantling of the Unified Health System (SUS) accompanied by setbacks in public policies such as governmental decrees that have demoted departments dealing with the monitoring and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, under which HIV is considered.

In its chapter on the right to health, the report “What is the color of the Invisible? The human rights situation of the Afro-LGBTI population in Brazil”, published by Race and Equality, provides data that explains the worrisome advancement of HIV / AIDS in the country [1]. As the document points out, structural racism and LGBTIphobia combined with the advancement of religious conservatism, constitute obstacles to the equal treatment of HIV for the entire population. The State’s lack of responsibility in the face of a moralistic discourse, incites society to prejudiced and LGBTIphobic practices when facing the fallacy that HIV is a virus that only infects homosexual people. As a result, any discussion on sex education was eliminated from schools.

According to the report, between 2007 and 2017, there was a 700% increase in HIV infection rates among people ages 15 to 24. This data is from the previous government, but it is known that due to the advancement of religious conservatism, currently, there are explosions of HIV cases among young people and adolescents who have not had access to the necessary public health information. Additionally, the report shows the impact of racism on healthcare and treatment, evidenced by the large discrepancy in relation to race and sex in the increase in cases of HIV infection and the development of AIDS, between 2008 and 2018.

Epidemiological data, explained by the report, shows that for both men and women, while the number of deaths from AIDS has decreased among white people, it has increased considerably among Black people. In 2018, there were 2,885 (40.3%) deaths of white men and 4,219 (59%) deaths of Black men. For women, the same differences occur. In 2008, there were 1,804 (47.4%) deaths of white women and 1,981 (52.1%) deaths of Black women. In 2018, there were 1,309 (37.7%) deaths of white women and 2,136 (61.5%) deaths of Black women.

The document criticizes the invisibility of lesbian women, transgender women, travestis and trans men in the data provided in the epidemiological bulletin. Placed within patterns of universal cis-heteronormativity, consequently, these groups no longer have public health policies that understand their real needs and, once again, are erased from the discussion and left more vulnerable.

The report reveals that, “A meta-analysis carried out based on data from 15 countries [2], estimated that 33.1% of trans women in Brazil lived with HIV, only behind Argentina (33.5%) and India (43.7% ), according to the data recorded up until 2011. That same survey pointed to the alarming estimate that trans women were 49 times more likely to contract HIV than other people.”

In this sense, the report brings to light the impact caused by structural racism and LGBTIphobia, condemning a large part of the Brazilian population to situations of extreme vulnerability in care and treatment for a dignified health condition. With this, the advancement of HIV / AIDS in Brazil again puts the country at risk of a pandemic, seeing as the dismantling of social programs essential for the maintenance of the population’s health serve as grounds for the proliferation not only of diseases, but also inequality and intolerance.

HIV/AIDS in Colombia: a success story without victories

 The annual global report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS), published in 2020 [3], reveals that Colombia is one of the few countries in Latin America where the rate of HIV infections has decreased in the last decade. Despite this, the general figures hide the lack of progress in serving the most vulnerable groups, seeing as high mortality rates still persist. However, there are other structural barriers that prevent these populations from accessing programs already proposed by the Government under this global strategy.

First, there is an important gap in access to health services due to the high rates of informal work and unemployment in the country which limit the possibilities of accessing services for the diagnosis of the disease, specifically for early diagnosis allowing for timely action and treatment. Today, the epidemic is concentrated in specific groups, two of which belong to the LGBTI population: “men who have sex with men”, MSM (this category includes bisexual men and men who do not declare themselves “gay”), and “trans women ”, MT (trans people who are born men and are now women). Within these groups, seropositivity levels are found to be highly elevated.

In Bogotá, the contagion rates in 2018 were around 17% (MSM) and 20% (MT). In contrast, the prevalence for the rest of the population in Bogotá is 0.5%, for those between the ages of 15 and 49 [4]. According to the Ministry of Health, at the national level, men who have sex with people of the same sex have a prevalence of HIV infection of 20.4% and transsexual women of 23.4% [5]. Despite these figures, there are no specific programs that allow these groups to access rapid tests or relevant information on them.

The second major barrier is the discrimination and prejudice that still exists around the subject. The stigma represented by HIV involves disrespectful and unnecessary inquiries about people’s sexual identity, their performance as a sex worker or about drug use. This is especially shocking if we take into account that in the main cities of Colombia, cases of contagion increased in trans women by more than 15% in 2019, among whom sex work continued to be one of the most common sources of income [6 ]. There is a negative burden associated with the disease that sends a message of death and / or undesirability to society about people living with HIV.

Just last year, the Colombian Constitutional Court eliminated the section of the penal code that criminalizes HIV transmission, noting that the law violated principles of equality and non-discrimination, considering that it discriminated against people living with the virus, stigmatizing it and limiting their rights [7]. As long as there are little to no specific programs for these populations on how to access healthcare and that work toward eliminating prejudices about the disease in general, it is clear that the fear of undergoing medical treatment and of society’s response will prevail over the search for a diagnosis.

Finally, returning to the idea that the Colombian government needs to strengthen its preventive response, it is important to understand that the phenomenon of HIV / AIDS presents itself as a serious global public health issue, in which we must not only discuss the natural context of the disease, but also a process that involves several dimensions, such as the social, economic and cultural ones.

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these difficulties. Although UNAIDS recommended that all countries distribute antiretrovirals to patients for periods of three months rather than monthly, in order to prevent them from excess exposure to COVID-19 from frequent outings, Colombia did not accept this provision [8]. This decision, in addition to the difficult socioeconomic conditions that already affect the LGBTI population, currently limits the access to health services by LGBTI persons [9].

On this day, Race and Equality calls upon States throughout Latin America to guarantee racial and sexual equality in the treatment of HIV, in addition to reinforcing the urgent need for sex education campaigns, whether in school environments or in public spaces. It is necessary to break stigmas and strengthen HIV prevention so that the world is not hit by another pandemic that, as is known, can be controlled. With this, we urge States to adopt the following recommendations:

1- Carry out the recommendations of the IACHR contained in its report on Violence against LGBTI people (2015) and adopt comprehensive measures that effectively combat discrimination and violence faced by LGBTI people living in poverty and extreme poverty; [10]

2- That guidelines be developed so that medical and nursing schools address – in their curricula, research, extension groups and in their academic events – topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity, so that, from their education, health professionals better understand the specific needs of LGBTI people, in particular transgender people.

3- That measures of awareness and training of professionals working in the health area be adopted, ensuring equal treatment for LGBTI people.

 

 

[1] Report available at: http://oldrace.wp/es/es_publicaciones/

[2] Argentina, Australia, Brazil, El Salvador, Spain, United States, Netherlands, India, Indonesia, Italy, Peru, Pakistan, Thailand, Uruguay and Vietnam.

[3] Available at: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/ 2020_global-aids-report_en.pdf

[4] Available at: https://www.revistaarcadia.com/periodismo-cultural—revista-arcadia/articulo/ lgbt-political-and-the-challenge-confront-hivsida-in-colombia / 68263 /

[5] Available at: https://www.radionacional.co/noticias/comunidad-lgbti-coronavirus

[6] Available at: http://unradio.unal.edu.co/nc/detalle/cat/un-analisis/article/vih-en-america- latina.html

[7] Available at: https://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2019/C-248-19.htm

[8] Available at: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/country/documents/COL_2020_countryreport.pdf

[9] Available at: https://www.radionacional.co/noticias/comunidad-lgbti-coronavirus

[10] IACHR. Violence against LGBTI Persons. 2015, p. 227, par. 382. Available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/ViolenceLGBTIPersons.pdf

As the Cuban Government Represses Independent Civil Society and Media, Race and Equality Demands Respect for Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly

Washington, D.C., November 24, 2020.- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) condemns the Cuban government’s ongoing repression of independent civil society, especially its current efforts to repress protests against the imprisonment of the musician and activist Denis Solís. On Sunday, this repression escalated with the detention of over a dozen activists, accompanied by attacks and censorship against local and international media outlets.

On Monday, civil society reported that at least 16 arbitrary detentions had taken place on Sunday, the majority of them in Havana’s Central Park, where independent activists and journalists gathered for a peaceful protest to demand Solís’ release. Solís, a member of the San Isidro Movement, was detained on November 9th and sentenced in a summary trial to eight months in prison for the supposed crime of “contempt,” a vaguely-defined statute frequently used to criminalize independent civil society activists.

Those detained have all been released, but they were interrogated, threatened, and in many cases beaten while in custody. Among those detained were Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, Marthadela Tamayo González, and Osvaldo Navarro Veloz, all members of the Citizens’ Committee for Racial Integration (CIR). The Dama de Blanco Berta Soler, activist Ángel Moya, reporter for independent outlet 14yMedio Luz Escobar, and independent journalist Héctor Luis Valdés were also detained. Other incidents of repression were reported across Cuba. In Antilla (Holguín province), CIR member Esber Rafael Ramírez Argota was detained; Leticia Ramos Herrería and Marisol Fernández Socorro, both Damas de Blanco, were arrested in Matanzas.

Race and Equality learned from Cuban contacts that violence was perpetrated not only by the police and State Security agents who quashed the protest, but also by pro-government civilian groups who insulted and struck the protestors while authorities stood by.

Persecution of CIR

This was the second incident of arbitrary detention that CIR, an independent civil society group working to promote the human rights of Afro-Cubans, suffered in November. On November 12th, CIR’s national coordinator Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna was detained outside his house in Havana. He was held incommunicado for over 18 hours as police searched his home and confiscated computers, cameras, hard drives, a projector, a voice recorder, a printer, documents, money, and other possessions.

Marthadela Tamayo González and Osvaldo Navarro Veloz were both detained at about 10:30am on November 19th, as they tried to attend a press conference at the CIR office about the failure of the government’s National Program Against Racism and Racial Discrimination. The two activists were taken to a police station in Alta Habana and spent approximately 50 minutes locked in a police car before being interrogated by two officials who identified themselves only as “Osvaldo” and “Ricardo.” “Ricardo” was the same officer who had overseen Madrazo Luna’s detention on November 12th.

During the interrogation, “Ricardo” warned the two to cease their activism with CIR, telling them that “you will not be allowed to ridicule President Díaz-Canel on social media,” a clear reference to CIR’s campaign marking the one-year anniversary of the National Program Against Racism and Racial Discrimination. About two hours after they were detained, they were driven to another police station in Santiago de La Vegas and held there until they were finally released around 2:50pm.

The planned press conference was suspended, with Madrazo Luna reporting that the CIR office was surrounded by State Security agents watching for journalists or community members who might try to attend.

Repression on the rise

Since the detention of Denis Solís on November 9th, the Cuban government has stepped up its violations of freedom of expression and its use of arbitrary detentions against human rights activists, journalists, and artists who speak out for Solís’ freedom.

Police surrounded the offices of the San Isidro Movement on November 18th, where 14 people had gathered to plan a peaceful protest march. In response, some of the protestors chose to launch a hunger strike. At the moment, two people continue to go without food or water, and five more remain on hunger strike.

Race and Equality calls on the Cuban government to cease its harassment and persecution of human rights defenders, including members of CIR. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Human Rights Council Resolution 13/13 both require state parties to desist from any actions that interfere with the work of human rights defenders and forbid discrimination, including for political reasons. We support the statement made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) calling upon the State of Cuba to “put a rapid end to the practice of harassment against independent activists, artists, and journalists who seek to exercise their right to freedom of expression.”

Look here for images about the repression of Sunday, November 22, in the Central Park of Havana:

State Department Should Push for Justice After Afro-Brazilian Man Killed by Security in Carrefour Store

Washington D.C., November 24th, 2020.– The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) add their voices to the thousands of Brazilians calling for justice for the November 19 murder of João Alberto Silveira Freitas in Porto Alegre, Brazil. According to videos circulating on social media, Mr. Silveira Freitas was beaten to death by Carrefour security guards after an alleged disagreement took place between Mr. Freitas and the guards.

This incident is just one of many acts of violence committed against Afro-Brazilians. Sadly, it took place a day prior to Brazil’s Black Awareness Day. On this day, Brazilians honor Francisco Nzumbi, better known as “Zumbi dos Palmares,” who in the late 1600s founded the Quilombo do Palmares, a community of people who resisted slavery. Instead of taking this opportunity to urge Brazilians to examine the connection that exists between systemic racism and violence in the country, the country’s leaders were quick to downplay this murder. On Saturday, President Jair Bolsonaro stated at the G-20 summit that some are trying to destroy Brazil’s diversity by “fueling race division..undermining the fight for equality.” The day prior, Vice President Hamilton Mourao stated to the press that “there’s no racism in Brazil.”

In a country where Afro-Brazilians are three times more likely than other Brazilians to be victims of homicide, such dismissive statements are troublesome. To its credit, Carrefour’s French CEO Alexandre Bompard stated that internal measures taken so far regarding the relationship with security contractors are insufficient and called for more comprehensive actions. Carrefour Brazil fired the security firm and is pushing that the guards are held legally accountable for their actions.

The U.S. government, as a party to the U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Ethnic and Racial Discrimination, should push Brazil to be self-critical when it comes to this incident, seek justice, and encourage the country to advance anti-racism efforts.

International Trans Day of Remembrance: Remembering and reaffirming the struggle for equality and justice

Washington, D.C., November 20th, 2020.- On November 20th, International Day of Trans Remembrance, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) remembers the trans people who have been killed around the world, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the majority of such killings take place according to civil society reports. Race and Equality spoke with six trans activists from across the region who keep the memory of those killed alive and carry on the struggle for equality and justice.

An unimaginable reality

Brandy Carolina was 32 years old when she was stabbed to death by a man in the La Chinita neighborhood of Barranquilla, Colombia. Brandy was known as an extrovert who dreamed of earning enough money to buy a house for her mother, but she was killed for being a trans woman before she could make her dream a reality. Her death and the hateful motives behind it were reported by organizations that defend the rights of Colombians with diverse sexualities and gender identities.

“She never expressed fear beforehand, she was confident in herself, and really, nobody expects to die, it comes suddenly and where you don’t expect it,” said Andra Hernández, a representative of the Boyacá LGBTI Network and a member of Femidiversas. However, Andra pointed out that La Chinita was also the site of two murders in the months before Brandy’s death: the killing of a trans woman on April 16th, and the murder of a lesbian woman on March 26th. “We didn’t expect that someone so close to us would meet the same fate, at the hands of a society that doesn’t respect diversity and difference. You can never be prepared for a death, much less being murdered for being trans,” she said.

Every year, in the lead-up to Trans Day of Remembrance, the international organization TransRespect Against Transphobia publishes a detailed report on the killing of trans and gender-diverse people around the world. This year’s report reveals that between October 1st, 2019 and September 30, 2020, there were 350 such murders. 82% occurred in Latin America, with Brazil (152 murders),[1] Mexico (45), and Colombia (16)[2] atop the list of countries with the most killings.

Dying two times

Santiago Balvin, a non-binary trans-masculine activist from Peru, affirmed the importance of commemorating trans people who have been killed. According to Santiago, these victims continue to suffer discrimination and erasure after their deaths: “There is a feeling of frustration because you can’t do anything – their families don’t recognize their names, the media does not report about their identity correctly, it’s very painful when your sister’s death is treated this way and it keeps happening with impunity.”

Santiago also emphasized the importance to Peru’s LGBTI community of marking the Tarapoto Massacre, also known as the Night of the Gardenias, a targeted killing of transgender people on May 31st, 1989 that is recognized as the worst hate crime against transgender people in Peru’s history. According to Santiago, Peruvian civil society organizations have recorded five murders of transgender people in 2020.

Victoria Obando, a Nicaraguan human rights activist and former political prisoner, told Race and Equality that for her, Trans Day of Remembrance is a day to honor the struggle for trans rights, a struggle in which most of those killed had participated during their lives. “We live in a society that does not recognize us as part of society. It’s a tragedy what the trans population has to go through, especially trans women. They don’t recognize that we are also human beings,” she said.

Nicaragua does not have reliable data about violence against trans people, a failure which Victoria links to the broader socio-political crisis affecting the country. She also denounced the tendency to sideline trans activists in discussions about how to return democracy to the country. “Some people think in terms of categories like ‘special topics’ and see trans rights as something secondary to be kept in a box. As an activist, I have had to fight for acceptance; some people underestimate my abilities because of my identity,” she said.

Exclusion and impunity

Athiany Larios Fonseca, a Nicaraguan trans woman living in exile in Costa Rica, recalls one of the first times she encountered anti-trans discrimination. “My friend and her partner were attacked with stones outside her house; she later asked me why people treat us so badly, and I started to cry. People attack us and even kill us because of this hate, because we are not a woman or a man according to their biological rules,” she told Race and Equality.

Christian King, an activist with TRANSSA in the Dominican Republic, explained that Trans Day of Remembrance “is about recognition and reaffirming our trans companions who have lost their lives to discrimination, transphobia, and prejudices that come from a lack of political will or public policies that protect trans rights and penalize discrimination.”

In the Dominican Republic, the Observatory on the Human Rights of Trans People has registered 49 hate crimes against trans women, of which only 5 have been tried and led to sentences against the perpetrators. Along with TRANSSA, the Observatory advocates for a national Law on Equality and Non-Discrimination, a Law on Gender Identity, and the full implementation of the National Human Rights Plan.

The state’s responsibility

Bruna Benevides, a leader of the National Association of Travestis and Transsexual People (ANTRA)[3] in Brazil, stated that violence against trans people stems from a long historical process by which trans people are rendered invisible, denying them their most basic rights. Bruna placed the blame squarely at the foot of the state, which has failed to respond to trans people’s needs. “We see a growing neoliberal trend around the world, leading to fascism. The specter of “gender ideology” and the belief that trans people, women, and Black people must continue to be subordinated are central to this trend,” she added.

Bruna also emphasized the ways in which COVID-19 has exacerbated violence against trans people, with inequality, unemployment, hunger, and social exclusion all worsening during the pandemic. As TransRespect’s report makes clear, the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on trans people, particularly trans people who are also excluded from society because they are women, Black or another racial minority, sex workers, migrants, young people, or poor.

Bruna went on: “Sadly, the lack of action and the lack of attention to trans people, the way that we are treated as invisible, leaves us without any state assistance. As a result, we are more vulnerable to violence. This is part of a broader logic that decides who can be killed, who can be discarded, who is not part of the hegemonic structure and can be exterminated easily. We are the country with the most killings of trans people in the world, and this year we are at the top of the ranking once again.”

On International Trans Day of Remembrance, Race and Equality calls on all states to remember their obligation to protect and promote the rights of all people without discrimination. Faced with a worldwide crisis of violence and murders against trans people, we offer the following recommendations:

  • States should adopt the necessary laws and policies to guarantee recognition, respect, and inclusion for people with diverse sexualities and gender identities
  • States should establish special mechanisms to respond to acts of violence against LGBT people, leading to full investigations, sanctions for those responsible, and guarantees of non-repetition
  • States should utilize official channels and resources to educate the population about sexual diversity and gender identity in order to promote societal recognition and respect for LGBTI people and their rights

[1] Data recorded by ANTRA, a Brazilian LGBTI advocacy organization

[2] Civil society organizations based in Colombia reported an additional 14 cases, for a total of 30

[3] Travesti is a Portuguese term for a person who was assigned male at birth, but who identifies and self-expresses as female, with or without any related medical interventions.

Race and Equality demands respect for freedom of expression in the midst of the campaign for the release of Cuban activist Denis Solís; condemns the Cuban government’s continued repression against independent journalist María Matienzo and activist Kirenia Yalit Nuñez Pérez

Washington, D.C., November 19, 2020.- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) strongly condemns the continued repression carried out against independent journalist and writer María Matienzo and her partner, activist Kirenia Yalit Nuñez Pérez, at the hands of the National Police and State Security. At least four officials and a police unit remain camped outside Matienzo and Nuñez’ home in Havana since Tuesday, November 17, threatening to arrest them and take them to prison if they attempt to leave the house.

Matienzo communicated to Race and Equality that she attributes the current act of repression to her and Nuñez’ participation in the Movimiento San Isidro’s campaign to demand the release of activist and musician Denis Solís, who was arrested in Havana on November 9 and was sentenced, two days later and in a summary trial, to eight months in prison for the supposed charge of “contempt.”

Matienzo signaled that on the first day, as they attempted to leave the house, officials in the street turned on the police sirens seeking to approach them and arrest them. In addition, her partner was blocked from accessing mobile data for half a day. This recent phenomenon has been attributed to a deliberate action from the Telecommunications company (ETECSA) to commonly suspend access to data services for activists and members of the opposition.

To Matienzo, a journalist for Cuban independent media outlet CubaNet, this type of harassment is a common and recurring practice. “Sometimes they let us leave and they detain us on the road; in March, Kirenia was able to get close to a meeting location before being detained and placed in a police car under direct sunlight and interrogation,” said Matienzo. On October 10, she faced a similar situation – she was arrested while walking towards the Movimiento San Isidro headquarters and was taken to a police station where she was kept for over five hours.

Kirenia, a psychologist and coordinator of the Cuban Youth Round Table (Mesa de Diálogo de la Juventud Cubana), was also fined 100 pesos in March of this year for being falsely accused of avoiding security mechanisms. In January, she was given a written threat of being arrested and processed for “introducing counter-revolutionary material” to Cuba.

Day of Repression

Matienzo emphasized that she and her partner are not the only victims of this wave of repression and persecution – dozens of other people have been beaten, threatened and arrested since the previous week in response to the Movimiento San Isidro’s series of actions to protest the arbitrary detention of activist Denis Solís and demand his immediate release.

“Denis Solís has a particular racial profile to which the government’s sexist, homophobic and racist approach has intentionally caused more harm. The situation of lack of freedom of expression seen in the island is untenable, but we have chosen to speak out. The people must wake up because this is an evil that affects us all equally,” said the journalist.

In response to the recent wave of repression, at least nine activists from the San Isidro Movement headquarters decided to undergo a hunger strike. According to Matienzo, 14 people remain inside the headquarters, where they held a meeting three days ago to draft poetry in favor of Denis Solís’ liberation. However, a group of around 100 men comprised of plainclothes police and State Security agents arrived at the scene and surrounded the property and prevented the activists from leaving; they also intercepted food deliveries being provided by a neighbor.

Race and Equality strongly condemns these actions, which are clear violations of human rights. We demand that the Cuban government adopt the necessary measures to ensure the safety of María Matienzo and Kirenia Yalit Nuñez Perez. In light of international human rights norms, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, freedom of expression must be guaranteed by all States.

Lesbian Resistance Collective creates project to map the socio-cultural situation and emotional state of lesbian and bisexual women in Rio’s Maré Favela Complex

In hopes of presenting the daily experiences of lesbian and bisexual women from the slums, specifically those who live in the Maré Favela Complex in Rio de Janeiro, the Lesbian Resistance Collective of Maré created a project to map the socio-cultural and emotional situation of lesbian and bisexual women.  The project was organized by Beatriz Adura Martins and Dayana Gusmão (Read: https://bit.ly/2TDB5ES), and the research was carried out in partnership with the Institute of Psychology at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) between November 2019 and June 2020. The mapping project is available for download on the Metanoia Editora website, run by lesbian women Léa Carvalho and Malu Santos. [1]

Their experiences were shared within Espaço Casulo, or Cocoon Space in English, where the therapeutic group took place, as well as in other social spaces used by the collective, allowing the mapping to take place alongside this region’s residents, rather than somewhere distant from their everyday realities. Before the research began, the psychology students leading it first learned about the situations that permeate lesbian and bisexual experiences within the favelas by exploring the realities of the Maré Favela Complex in person. From this exploration, fundamental questions were born that now form the mapping project.

The document aims to register and denounce the scarcity of information on lesbian favela experiences, particularly non-violent ones, seeing as hegemonic representations of favelas remit the violence and abandonment of public power. “Generally, these surveys only deal with middle-class lesbian women and/or those ‘on track,’ and the reality of lesbians in the favelas ends up being ignored. For this reason, the idea of ​​the mapping project is to affirm these existences in Maré and not to tell them how they should be,” explains Beatriz Adura [2]. Thus, she presents the question: how can numbers and surveying serve to chart subjective experiences?

Based on these reflections, the organizers affirm that this is pioneer research, as they know of no other socio-cultural and emotional mapping of lesbians and bisexuals within Brazilian favelas. With this, they hope to extend the discussion to many other mapping projects about these women’s realities across the country. The organizers emphasize that the plurality of “lesbianalities” needs to be made visible, as research reflects that, even in Maré, there are unique differences between their realities and those of other women. As  outlined in their objectives, the mapping intends to influence the construction of public policies that consider the specific lived experiences of lesbian and bisexual women from these communities, as well as to open debate and produce conviviality that contributes to the elimination of social marginalization that lesbians face in the Maré favelas.

Eight out of the 16 total favelas within the complex were included in the mapping project. The 40-question long questionnaire obtained a total of 59 respondents who answered questions about race, housing, maternity, religion, basic sanitation, and family relationships, among others. Having a majority of university student respondents, the project highlights the importance of community college entrance exams in Maré.  Looking at questions related to gender, researchers noted that these questions are more advanced academic questions. Gender is not a common topic that is considered in the daily lives of these women, so much so that 20% chose not to answer these questions and three designated themselves as non-binary.

Regarding race, 70% declared themselves to be non-white, a fact that the organizers see as vital to creating public policies that contemplate the reality of the favelas, as, generally, these surveys focus on the perspectives of white and middle-class lesbian women. More specifically, 47.5% declared themselves Black; 28.8%, white; 20.3%, brown; 3.4%, Indigenous; and no person claimed to be Asian. “We draw attention to the importance of specific surveys on methods of favela sociability that often do not appear in the statistics of generic surveys, always leaving the favela population destined to talk about their problems and violence. Lesbians living in the favelas of Maré exist and are mostly Black, brown, and Indigenous, representing 71.2% of this population,” the report indicates.

In regard to violence, the interviewees said they felt safer and more comfortable within the favela to express their sexuality, as they have already suffered attacks outside of it. With this, the research reveals that domestic violence is something that characterizes the daily life of lesbians in Maré. Many of them have already been referred by family members to some sort of conversion therapy [3] based on religious practices.  In this sense, this data reflects how the advancement of the conservative agenda and the growth of neo-Pentecostal churches in the region influence the situation of violence and the denial of lesbian existence. For these women, psychological violence represents twice as much oppression as physical violence, resulting in 70% of them declaring that they have no religion.

Given this scenario, the organizers explain that uniting the of lesbians in Maré was important for the construction of research, however, this was only the first stage. At the moment, the Lesbian Resistance Collective of Maré is looking for sponsorship for the second phase of the mapping project in order to cover more favelas throughout the complex. Few financial resources, the lack of technological material and even the difficulty in access to internet, made the project difficult to complete, not mention the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed the end of their research.

“Police violence was another factor that made research difficult. At various times when we were able to mobilize women to answer the questionnaire, police operations were taking place. Militarization only caused damage. For this reason, this research is done from a perspective of demilitarization of the favela and people’s lives. It is necessary to create a territory of care, of life production and not of control,” says Dayana Gusmão. [4]

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human rights congratulates all involved in the elaboration of the dossier and supports all research that affirms the favela as a place of knowledge production. In this sense, we recommend that the Brazilian State:

1 – Create public policies that contemplate the diversity and intersectionality of lesbian women from slums;

2 – Undertake policies that aim to demilitarize slums, not only during the pandemic, but as a continual local policy;

3 – Implement the IACHR’s recommendations from its report on Violence against LGBTI people (2015) regarding actions to analyze and assess the prevalence of violence against lesbian and bisexual women: adopt specific measures to prevent and investigate this type of violence with a differential approach that considers power relations at the intersection of sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender expression [4]

 

[1] Access the mapping project: https://bit.ly/2TDB5ES

[2] Speeches presented during the launch of mapping project on YouTube at the Maré Museum, which took place on October 17th.

[3] Access the report on Conversion Therapies by the UN IESOGI, Victor Madrigal-Borloz: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/53

[4] IACHR. Violence against LGBTI people. 2015, p. 311, par. 69. Available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/violencelgbtipersons.pdf

Following the arbitrary detention of Afro-Cuban leader Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, Race and Equality demands that the Cuban government end its persecution of independent civil society activists

Washington, D.C.; November 13, 2020.- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) condemns the arbitrary detention carried about against Afro-Cuban activist Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, the national coordinator of the Citizens’ Committee for Racial Integration (CIR). Juan Antonio was deprived of his liberty for over twelve hours, during which time his family and colleagues had no information about his whereabouts. Race and Equality demands that the Cuban government immediately end its persecution of citizens who take part in independent civil society activities.

According to information from fellow CIR activist Marthadela Tamayo, security agents violently detained Juan Antonio around 4:00pm on Thursday, November 12 at his home in Havana. Security personnel also confiscated property from Juan Antonio and his sister Jacqueline Madrazo, including two computers, a camara, a projector and screen, an audio recorder, books, and documents.

Although Juan Antonio was released on Friday morning, his family and colleagues were given no information about his whereabouts for over twelve hours, despite visiting at least six police stations to ask where he was being held. Race and Equality, along with other organizations on and off the island, considers Juan Antonio’s treatment to be a case of forced disappearance.

Juan Antonio’s arrest comes on the heels of CIR’s efforts to publicize their report Denial, Exclusion, and Discrimination, which documents the human rights situation for Afro-Cubans and Cubans of mixed race, and the results of the organization’s investigation into racial discrimination in the Cuban labor market. Both documents have been disseminated at the national and international levels, including bring presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

A wave of arrests

 CIR also informed Race and Equality that CIR members Esber Rafael and Braulio Hastié were detained in Antilla (Holguin province) on Thursday. The arresting officer, a State Security agent identified as Henry Borrero Peña, confiscated another camera from the two activists. Also on Thursday, the artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and the independent journalist Iliana Hernandez were both arrested and released hours later.

The government constantly wields such tactics of police harassment and short-term detention against Cuba’s independent civil society. Race and Equality demands that Cuban authorities respect the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly, and freedom of movement. The Cuban State is obligated to protect and promote these rights under the treaties and international commitments to which it is party.

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