Race and Equality: The Cuban government must grant political prisoner José Rolando Casares Soto full and unconditional liberty

Race and Equality: The Cuban government must grant political prisoner José Rolando Casares Soto full and unconditional liberty

Washington, D.C., August 20, 2020.- On Wednesday, August 19, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) confirmed that Cuban political prisoner José Rolando Casares Soto was released under conditional liberty via a phone call with Mr. Casares. As an organization dedicated to defending and promoting human rights, we celebrate the fact that Mr. Casares, an activist and member of the Cuban Youth Roundtable (Mesa de Diálogo de la Juventud Cubana) has been released from prison and can rejoin his family; however, we continue to insist that the Cuban government grant him unconditional liberty and rescind his convictions, as well as that of his wife Yamilka Abascal Sánchez.

Mr. Casares was one of the activists whose stories were highlighted in our report Premeditated Convictions, which examined the Cuban government’s strategies for criminalizing its opponents. In July 2016, Mr. Casares and Ms. Abascal attempted to defend a friend who was being detained by the police. As a result, Mr. Casares was arrested and detained for a week. During his detention, he was forced to undergo a strip-search and interrogation. Authorities informed him that he would be charged with “assault” and “resistance,” but he was not informed of any proceedings until six months later, when he and his wife were summoned to trial.

Sentencing

The couple were tried together in a trial that was closed to the public and did not include guarantees of due process. Ms. Abascal was convicted of “contempt” and served a two-year “limitation of liberty” sentence in their home, while Mr. Casares was convicted of “assault” and “sexual obscenity.” This second charge emerged due to the police’s claim that he had taken off his own clothing while being arrested, when in fact he was forced to do so as police searched for a flash drive containing information about the Cuban Youth Roundtable.

Mr. Casares was originally sentenced to five years’ correctional labor without internment. On March 24, 2017, he was ordered to present himself at the state-run Civil Construction firm of his municipality but refused to do so in protest of his conviction. As a result, his sentence was changed to five years in prison.

After the order to appear on March 24, Mr. Casares did not receive another official communication from the court or the Ministry of the Interior (which oversees the penal system) and did not learn of his new sentence until he was arrested off the street, on his way to buy medicine for his children, on August 3. The five-year sentence is noteworthy for being longer than the 1- to 3-year sentences typically given to political prisoners.

Three years of suffering

Mr. Casares was held in Kilo 5 Prison in Pinar del Río until August 2019, when he was transferred to the Kilo 4 Penitential Center, a minimum-security facility. During his imprisonment, he suffered complications from a dental implant that was broken during his arrest, along with an intestinal prosthesis that he has had since childhood. On May 11, 2020, he was transferred to a hospital after suffering severe stomach pains for several days. At the hospital, he learned that he had a kidney stone. He received an injection for the pain but was not given any other treatment.

Mr. Casares has spent three years of life in prison, separated from his wife and children, for no reason other than his political beliefs. When he was arrested August 2017, his daughter was only 1 year old, and his younger son had just been born in April. “At last our children will enjoy the love from their father that they lost for three years … I will continue demanding the liberation of all political prisoners who are still incarcerated unjustly,” Ms. Abascal wrote on Facebook. During the family’s ordeal, Cuban security officials threatened her with the loss of custody of their children if she continued to denounce her husband’s treatment.

On August 18, the government finally approved Mr. Casares’ latest request for conditional liberty, allowing him to return home. However, he is still subject to various restrictions.

Upon being freed, Mr. Casares emphasized that other prisoners who have committed no crime remain in Cuban prisons and that he plans to continue exposing the inhumane conditions in which political prisoners are held.

Irregularities

Race and Equality has presented petitions to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Mr. Casares and Ms. Abascal’s behalf, documenting how both of their detentions were arbitrary in violation of Cuba’s international obligations.

Among the irregularities documented were the lack of a legal justification for their arrest, the lack of a court order to keep them in prison, authorities’ failure to inform them why they were being held, and Mr. Casares being held incommunicado for seven days without court oversight. The Cuban state has plainly violated their rights to freedom of opinion and expression, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

These rights violations are retaliation for the couple’s work with the Cuban Youth Roundtable to denounce the government’s abuses and seek electoral reform. Race and Equality demands that Mr. Casares be granted full, unconditional freedom and that his fundamental rights be respected.

Race and Equality condemns the murder of five young Afro-Colombians in Cali and issues recommendations for ensuring truth and preventing future killings

Bogotá, August 14, 2020.- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) condemns the killing of five young Afro-Colombians, whose families had been previously victimized by Colombia’s armed conflict, in the Llano Verde neighborhood of Cali. As an organization working to protect and promote human rights, Race and Equality expresses our solidarity with the mourning families and community. We stand alongside the community to demand that this crime not fall into impunity and that the government adopt the necessary measures to prevent such tragedies from reoccurring.

The five victims have been identified as Jean Paul Cruz Perlaza, 15; Leyder Cárdenas Hurtado, 15; Juan Manuel Montaño, 15; Álvaro José Caicedo Silva, 14; and Jair Andrés Cortez Castro, 14. The five had left their homes on the morning of Tuesday, August 11 for a community activity; their bodies were discovered at the end of the day in a nearby sugarcane field, showing signs of torture and execution-style gunshot wounds.

Just two days later, on August 13, another person was killed and fifteen more were injured in the same neighborhood when an unidentified person set off an explosive device. According to local media, the bombing was an attempt to attack the local police division.

Contextualizing the events

 Race and Equality calls for full reparation of the victims’ families and community, along with measures to ensure that such tragedies do not reoccur. To be effective and to comply with Afro-Colombians’ human rights, these measures must take into account the particular circumstances of Afro-Colombians who were displaced by the armed conflict. These communities suffered grave rights violations and the loss of their ancestral territories; today, they continue to suffer further incidents of displacement, threats, attacks, murders and assassinations, forced recruitment by illegal groups including drug traffickers, sexual exploitation, and a lack of educational and work opportunities.

“Stopping the violence against Afro-Colombian communities requires us to recognize and confront the factors that underly it: historical patterns of structural racism and racial discrimination that deny Afro-Colombians the conditions to ensure equality and to claim their rights as Afro-Colombians,” according to Pedro Cortes, Race and Equality’s advisor in Colombia who leads the organization’s work accompanying Afro-Colombian organizations in denouncing rights violations and advocating for justice before the national government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)

Race and Equality has issued a set of recommendations to Colombian authorities, designed to ensure that the government’s response to the killings take into account the victims’ experiences as Afro-Colombians, address the particular impact of violence upon young Afro-Colombians, and protect the rights and safety of the victims’ families and community.

Race and Equality has also requested that the IACHR, United Nations human rights treaty bodies, and United Nations special procedures all take action to ensure that the government’s response brings justice.

Read our statement and the recommendations here.

Race and Equality publishes eight recommendations to protect the Afro-descendant population in Latin America from COVID-19

Washington D.C. August 6, 2020.– As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reverberate across Latin America, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) set out to analyze the impact of the pandemic on the region’s Afro-descendant population. Based on the results, the organization has formulated eight recommendations for States, human rights institutions, and international bodies to develop pandemic responses that are in line with Afro-descendants’ needs.

Race and Equality conducted this research through several webinars, virtual meetings, and dialogues with Afro-descendant leaders between March 27 and May 17, 2020. Public statements from Afro-descendant civil society in the region and declarations from anti-racial discrimination mechanisms within the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations systems were also consulted.

According to data from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Afro-descendant population in the region totals 130 million people, representing approximately 21% of the region’s population. So far, no entity has published official data on how many Afro-descendants how been infected with, or died from, COVID-19. Civil society organizations, however, have conducted their own studies and revealed high levels of vulnerability and inequality affecting the Afro-descendant population.

A lack of vital health information, difficulties in accessing national health systems, and acts of violence by both police and illegal armed groups are all major obstacles to Afro-descendant communities as they face the pandemic. “We thought it was critical to understand Afro-descendants’ situation in the pandemic because from there, we can decide on actions to support our counterparts. We can also make better recommendations to States, human rights bodies, and international organizations about how to guarantee their rights,” said Elvia Duque, Race and Equality’s Legal Program Officer and the leader of the study.

Race and Equality developed eight recommendations for combatting structural racism and racial discrimination; improving health and education systems, especially with regards to gaps between urban and rural communities; guaranteeing human rights; and gathering trustworthy statistics to study the pandemic through an intersectional lens. The recommendations emphasize the need to implement these recommendations through consultation and coordination with Afro-descendent leaders.

Readers can find the results of the study and consult the recommendations here.

Race and Equality denounces harassment against members of the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba and demands respect for freedom of expression on the island

Washington, D.C. August 3, 2020.- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) denounces the harassment and threats committed this weekend by Cuban State Security against a family that are members of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL, for its initials in Spanish). These threats were intended to silence leaders of this independent civil society organization on the island.

Dr. Eduardo Cardet Concepcion, National Coordinator of the MCL and former political prisoner, denounced that on July 31 and August 2, State Security agents approached different members of his family, who are part of the MCL, to demand that they leave the organization and threatened them with criminal prosecution and fines if they continued participating in actions supporting the MCL or Cardet Concepcion.

The first of these acts occurred on July 31, when a State Security agent who identified himself only as “Elio” arrived at the workplace of Yaimaris Vecino’s father. Vecino is the spouse of Cardet Concepcion. “Elio” told Yaimaris’ father to ask his daughter to leave the MCL or else her husband would return to prison.

This is not the first time that Cuban authorities have taken actions against Vecino. In the past, including the months that Cardet Concepcion was in prison, she was cited and interrogated on various occasions by State Security agents, who have even come to the clinic where she works to interrogate her there.

The second act of repression occurred on Sunday, around 1pm, when two officials from the Political Police came to the home of Yordan Marino Fernandez, Coordinator of the MCL for Holguín and Las Tunas, and Vecino’s cousin. The police forced him to report urgently to the police station in Velasco, the town where he lives. Once there, the activist was interrogated by two State Security agents, who threatened to charge him with a common crime.

According to the report, the agents told Marino Fernandez that they were not going to allow any member of the MCL to leave the country and that they would economically suffocate the organization until it disappeared. They also threatened to fine Marino Fernandez’s spouse and threatened their son. Before allowing him to leave the station, the agents ordered Marino Fernandez to stop his involvement with the MCL and not to support Eduardo Cardet Concepcion, or else both would go to prison.

The threats against Yaimaris Vecino and Marino Fernandez are especially worrisome because they are very similar to the threats that State Security agents made against Eduardo Cardet Concepcion before he was brutally attacked and convicted of a crime he did not commit in November 2016. The National Coordinator of the MCL served a three-year sentence. He served the majority of his sentence in prison in inhumane conditions and was stabbed by other inmates. He was placed under conditional liberty in May 2019, which he was subjected to until October 2019.

The MCL was founded in 1988 and despite their belief in peaceful change, they have been one of the most persecuted organizations by the Cuban state and its security forces. Of the 75 political prisoners during the Black Spring in 2003, 17 were members of the MCL. On July 22, 2012, their founder, Oswaldo Paya, died under unexplained circumstances after his car was hit by a State Security vehicle.

Race and Equality expresses its concern for the security of Yaimaris Vecino, Yordan Marino Fernandez, and all other members of the MCL, and urges the Cuban state to stop harassing them and to allow them to carry out their work as a political party. We also urge the international community to monitor the situation of MCL members and to demand respect and protection for the rights to freedom of expression and assembly on the island.

Activists from Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia gather to expose the issues faced by Afrodescendant women in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and to urge States to take necessary measures for their protection

Washington, D.C. July 31, 2020. – In celebration of the International Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women’s Day on July 25, women activists working to promote and defend the rights of Afro-descendants in Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia gathered in a webinar to discuss key issues faced by Afro-descendant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion highlighted the multiple forms of violence and discrimination on the basis of race, socioeconomic class, and gender faced by these women.

The webinar entitled “Racism and Afrodescendant Women: Post-pandemic Projections” was moderated by Elvia Duque, Program Officer at the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality). The webinar was well-attended by the public, through the Zoom platform (70 participants) and through Facebook Live on Race and Equality’s page (76 shares, 35 comments from different parts of the region.) As of Friday, the Facebook stream had reached 6,396 people, according to the platform’s statistics.

An adverse environment

Echoing the words of Brazilian professor Joana dos Passos, Dr. Elia Avendaño – a PhD in Law and researcher at the Cultural Diversity Studies Program at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) – said “Racism is a permanent pandemic” and pointed out that Mexico is facing the COVID-19 pandemic under many disadvantageous situations. At the beginning of the year, the President abolished Seguro Popular, a public health insurance program which covers 52.8% of Mexico’s Afro-descendant population. Dr. Avendaño explained that the repeal was done to make way for the new Institute for Health and Well-being (INSABI), but it won’t be fully operational until the end of the year.

According to Dr. Avendaño, structural inequalities in Mexico place economically-deprived populations and those with limited access to health services at a greater risk of contracting the disease. This includes indigenous persons and Afro-descendants. “To date, we have recorded 42,645 deaths related to the pandemic, but we do not know how many of those who have died were Afro-descendants. Our health care system is supposed to treat everyone who needs help, even if they do not have a health plan. However, preference is being given to those who have a greater probability to survive, and in this case, those with a history of having suffered from inequality, marginalization, exclusion, and poverty are not included,” she said.

Sagrario Cruz Carretero, an anthropologist and investigative professor at the Universidad Veracruzana (University of Veracruz), focused her remarks on the evidence of the rich African heritage found in Mexico to counter the denial of this reality by many sectors of society today, which result in a lack of adequate policies for Afro-descendant communities. “Why is there a denial of Afro-descendant or Black identities in Mexico? This is because of racism and for fear of losing white privilege, which are tools that allow others to obtain better opportunities in life,” according to Prof. Cruz Carretero.

Meanwhile, Astrid Cuero – an Afro-Colombian leader of feminist and anti-racism movements at the Grupo Lationamericano de Estudio, Formación y Acción Feminista (Latin-American Group of Feminist Study, Training, and Action – GLEFAS in Spanish) stated that “the pandemic is racialized.” In the case of Colombia, the pandemic has given way to a resurgence of violence in rural areas, and an increase of murders of Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders, thus showing the State’s shortcomings when it comes to protecting fundamental rights.

“Many Afrodescendants don’t have stable jobs and have to live off of the informal economy. The state has not provided dignified and humane ways to allow this population to isolate themselves during the pandemic. How can you expect a poor, Black person to self-quarantine if they have no other option but to go out and work? This is how they are exposed,” says Cuero, who also emphasized that Afrodescendant populations not only are vulnerable to COVID-19 but are also susceptible to violence from paramilitary groups.

Tanya Duarte, who is Afro-Mexican and is the director of the Proyecto Afrodescendencia México (Afro-descendant Mexico Project), assessed that “being able to survive self-quarantine is a matter of privilege and social class.” For example, many families are having to withdraw their children from school because they cannot afford the cost of online classes. She also indicated that racism is strongly affecting migrant Afro-descendant populations that reside or pass through Mexico. These populations are marginalized as a result of the COVID-19 response or end up exposed to organized crime.

Urgent policy action is needed

Joanna Wheterborn, an Afro-Guatemalan member of the Advisory Council of the Network of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino, and of the Diaspora Women (RMAAD in Spanish), indicated that isolation due to the pandemic has correlated with a disproportionate increase in levels of gender-based violence within homes. Wheterborn called attention to the need to update the statistics on the Afro-descendant population in Guatemala and in other parts of the region – “if they do not count us, they do not see us; and if they do not see us, they will not care for us.”

The panelists concluded that racism is a pandemic that plagues Afro-descendant populations, and that the responses to COVID-19 should be addressed with the understanding that Afro-descendant women are one of the priority groups to be included in the programs and plans of the State. In addition, they highlighted the need for accurate disaggregated data by population, including race/ethnicity and gender, to present adequate solutions for Afro-descendant populations.

At the end of the conversation, Elvia Duque urged the public to continue making use of regional and international mechanisms such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Afro-descendants & Against Racial Discrimination, as tools that amplify the voice of Afro-descendant women outside national dialogue – where often their voices are ignored and silenced.

Watch the webinar again here:

A message of unity and strength on the International Day for Afro-Latina, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women

Washington D.C. July 24, 2020.– The International Day for Afro-Latina, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women is celebrated across the hemisphere every July 25th to commemorate the first Summit of Afro-Latina and Afro-Caribbean Women, held in the Dominican Republic in 1992. The Summit was a key moment for Afro-descendant women’s fight to claim greater visibility and proper recognition for their contributions to culture and society.

Along with our grassroots partners, including the Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diaspora (RMAAD – Network of Afro-Latina, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women), the International Institute on Race, Equality & Human Rights (Race and Equality) has designed graphic materials in collaboration with Afro-descendant women activists, including trans and lesbian leaders, from 11 Latin American countries.* These materials recognize the invaluable work of Afro-descendant women in the Americas and their contributions to their homes, their communities, the work of cultural preservation, and the fight to end discrimination against Afro-descendants, women, and LGBTI people.

Race & Equality fully concurs with RMAAD’s core analysis and premises, which describe how Afro-descendant women suffer a triple form of discrimination because of their gender, race, and economic status. We are committed to raising awareness of the challenges facing Afro-Latina women and to reviewing our own practices to determine how we can contribute to Afro-descendant women’s quality of life across the Americas.

Estimates of the Afro-descendant population in the Americas vary from approximately 133 million people (according to the World Bank) up to approximately 300 million people, which would represent about 30% of the region’s population. Having worked to address statistical gaps regarding Afro-descendants in several countries, Race & Equality recognizes that statistics regarding Afro-descendant women’s situation are severely lacking. We call on allies across the region to work for improved data collection, emphasizing that such data is the most basic tool for meeting the needs and demands of Afro-descendant women.

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens the vulnerability of Afro-descendant women, we commit to lifting up their voices and magnifying their message of strength for women across the world who fight to overcome hardship. We call on states to create and strengthen policies to combat violence and discrimination against Afro-descendant women, for only by working together can civil society and states bridge the gaps facing Afro-descendant women throughout the continent.

*Marianita Minda, who passed away in May, is listed posthumously to honor her work as founder of the Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras de Ecuador (Nacional Ecuadorian Coordination Group of Black Women)

IACHR grants Race and Equality’s request for precautionary measures for Cuban political prisoner Silverio Portal Contreras

Washington, D.C.  July 23, 2020.- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) is pleased that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has granted our request for precautionary measures for Silverio Portal Contreras. The request was submitted on June 5, 2020 and was granted this Wednesday. Portal Contreras is in a situation of grave risk and the Cuban government should follow the IACHR’s recommendations to take measures necessary to protect his life and personal integrity.

Silverio Portal Contreras is a Cuban political prisoner who was arrested in July 2018 while participating in a public protest. He is an independent activist who has supported various movements in Cuba, including the Ladies in White and the Opposition Movement for a New Republic. While in prison, his health has suffered significantly. He has suffered from thrombosis and consecutive ischemic attacks and transient ischemic attacks (TIA) that have left him partially paralyzed and with reduced eyesight because he did not receive adequate treatment for the conditions. His eyesight is also affected by a cardiac condition and because he was beaten in prison by prison authorities.

In a resolution in October 2019 denying Portal Contreras medical parole, the Provincial Tribunal of Havana recognized that Portal Contreras suffers from health conditions that put his health and life at risk, such as hypertension, ischemic cardiovascular disease, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia, and that he therefore requires “specialized follow-up to maintain his illnesses.” However, the judges decided that his state of health is “compatible with the penitentiary regime.”

Race and Equality filed for precautionary measures on Portal Contreras’ behalf after his wife, Lucinda Gonzalez Gomez, informed us that she had stopped receiving her scheduled telephone calls with Portal Contreras after he reported experiencing another TIA. Gonzalez Gomez also received several calls from other prisoners reporting that Portal Contreras had been severely beaten by prison authorities and placed in an isolation cell. The prisoners also told her that Portal Contreras was losing his eyesight because of the beating and lack of medical attention. At the time the precautionary measure request was submitted at the beginning of June, Gonzalez Gomez had had no communication with her husband for several weeks and feared for his life.

In the resolution granting the precautionary measures, the IACHR recognized the extreme situation of risk Portal Contreras is in, noting the “special severity” of the allegations given that the perpetrators are the same state authorities responsible for his care as a prisoner. The IACHR also noted the damaging and permanent effects the failure of the State to provide Portal Contreras with medical care can have, given his condition. The context faced by human rights defenders in Cuba was also a significant factor, which the IACHR described as being “characterized generally by a climate of hostility, persecution, and harassment, particularly with respect to those who have manifested opposition to the government.”

Although the granting of precautionary measures is an important step in drawing international attention to Portal Contreras’ case, he is still very much at risk. Prison authorities continue to deny Portal Contreras the medical care he needs. On Wednesday, Gonzalez Gomez received a call from her husband informing her that he is not receiving the medication he needs for a heart condition, and as a result is losing sight in both eyes. The prison doctor denies that Portal Contreras has a heart condition.

Race and Equality calls on the Cuban government to implement the recommendations the IACHR made in the resolution granting precautionary measures to Portal Contreras, including conducting an investigation to avoid repetition of similar events. Race and Equality is open for dialogue with the Cuban government to help implement these measures. We also urge the international community to follow Portal Contreras’ case and pressure the Cuban government to provide him with the medical care he needs and to release him from prison.

Read the Resolution (in Spanish) here.

UN Independent Expert on SOGI calls for global ban on “Conversion Therapy”

Washington D.C. July 17, 2020. – On July 14, the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (IE SOGI), Victor Madrigal-Borloz, launched his report on practices of so-called “conversion therapy” in an interactive online event in Spanish and Portuguese, following his presentation to the Human Rights Council on July 7-9, where he explained the severity of these practices, and the need for a global ban to protect LGBTI people.

The event included the participation of the UN Resident Coordinator in Honduras, Alice Shackelford, and Andrés Sánchez Thorin, Deputy Representative and Officer-in-Charge of the Regional Office for Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

According to the report, “conversion therapy” is used as an umbrella term to describe interventions of a wide-ranging nature, all of which have in common the belief that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity can and should be changed. Such practices aim (or claim to aim) at changing people from gay, lesbian, or bisexual to heterosexual and from trans or gender diverse to cisgender.

In the report, Madrigal-Borloz provided examples of interventions applied to attempt conversion which include acts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; electrocution and forced medication; and isolation and confinement, as well as verbal abuse and humiliation. It also shows that conversion therapy puts LGBTI people through many forms of physical and mental abuse, which constitutes inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatment and can amount to torture depending on the severity of pain and suffering inflicted.  “All practices which attempt forms of conversion are inherently humiliating, degrading, and discriminatory,” he explains.

The report also examines the perpetrators, promoters, and economics surrounding these practices, showing that they are oftentimes a lucrative business for different providers worldwide.  It notes that in some places, such as Ecuador, the average monthly cost for internment in these centers can be estimated to be around $500 per month.

Leading up to this event, Madrigal-Borloz carried out a series of consultations and received inputs from different regions around the world on these practices. This included an expert meeting held at Harvard University, where over 30 experts and activists from various countries came together to discuss this important topic. The meeting, supported by the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, opened dialogue on the subject which was vital for the elaboration of the report.

During the event, the IE SOGI highlighted that “there have been norms on what is considered sexual orientation and gender identity, and those who fall outside of those norms, such as LGBTI people, suffer stigma and discrimination.”

UN Deputy Representative Andrés Sánchez confirmed that, “The report reveals that these conversion therapies are carried out in all regions of the world and by a wide range of actors and include the active participation of family members and community members. It also highlights how children are vulnerable to these practices that cause serious and irreversible damage to their well-being.”

He continued by explaining that “the description of the pain and suffering of people who have undergone these so-called conversion therapies should deeply concern the entire population and the States to ensure that there is respect and guarantees of their human rights.”

The event was livestreamed through Facebook and attendees from various countries in Latin America joined. Attendees expressed their questions, concerns, and gratitude, and acknowledged the importance of these findings for their communities and how they are the first steps towards change.

Based on the findings in his report, the Independent Expert calls for a global ban on such practices and issues the following recommendations to States:

  1. Take urgent measures to protect children and young people from practices of “conversion therapy.”
  2. Carry out campaigns to raise awareness among parents, families and communities about the invalidity and ineffectiveness of and the damage caused by practices of “conversion therapy.”
  3. Adopt and facilitate healthcare and other services related to the exploration, free development, and/or affirmation of sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
  4. Foster dialogue with key stakeholders, including medical and health professional organizations, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, and community-based organizations to raise awareness about the human rights violations connected to practices of “conversion therapy.”

Race and Equality continues to support the work of the Mandate of the Independent Expert on SOGI and joins the call for a global ban on practices of “conversion therapy.”

To learn more about the report and watch this presentation, please follow the links below:

Summary: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/ConversionTherapyReport.pdf

Full Report: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/44/53

On July 10, there was another launch event in English. Watch the English presentation here:

https://www.facebook.com/IESOGI/videos/278885676780658/?v=278885676780658

#EndConversionTherapy

Civil society organizations discuss the challenges for Afro-LGBT victims of the armed conflict with the Colombian Truth Commission

On June 25 and 26, Colombia’s Commission for the Clarification of Truth held a virtual meeting with the leaders of Afro-LGBT organizations in Valle del Cauca, Nariño and the Caribbean region. During the meeting, these leaders discussed their work with representatives from the Commission’s Working Group on Gender and its Office for Ethnic Peoples, drawing on their experiences to express the importance of an intersectional approach in the Commission’s work.

This meeting took place under the auspices of a project being carried out by the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) with the support of the Canadian government. The project seeks to highlight the needs of Afro-LGBT victims of Colombia’s armed conflict and bring awareness to the particular impact of the conflict on people with diverse gender identities and expressions. “This type of discussion space is very important for ensuring the participation of Afro-LGBT organizations in the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice and Reparation, especially now that public participation has been limited by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Laura Poveda, Race and Equality’s legal consultant for Colombia.

During the two-day dialogue, participants discussed how racism and discrimination based on sexual orientation/gender identity intersected in the course of the conflict. They also discussed the barriers to achieving truth and justice in the cases of Afro-LGBT conflict victims.

Sandra Arizabaleta, the director of the Cali-based organization Somos Identidad, remarked that LGBT people who belong to a racialized group suffer violence that seeks to remove any trace of an Afro and LGBT identity from the conflict zones. She informed the group that dispossession, displacement, sexual violence and forced disappearance were all prevalent among Afro-LGBT victims. These tactics were utilized to uproot victims from their territories and their communities.

Vivian Cuello, an activist with Caribe Afirmativo, reiterated activists’ call for the Truth Commission to analyze the violence suffered by groups that are smaller in number, but whose experiences must be brought to the fore in order to avoid perpetuating such violations. She mentioned the human rights violations suffered by LTB women, trans men and LGBT youth as cases to which the Commission should bring attention in its final report.

Angelo Muñoz and Franklin Quiñonez, both part of the Arco Iris de Tumaco Foundation, pointed out that official facts and figures about these cases will be necessary in order to fight impunity. “These cases must be visible in order to overcome complacency about discrimination and violence against Afro-LGBT people and build trust between victims and official entities,” said Quiñonez.

Alejandra Londoño, a member of the Commission’s Working Group on Gender, emphasized that in order for the Commission to complete its mission of clarifying the causes, course and impacts of the conflict, it must achieve legitimacy among conflict’s victims, whose work has already extensively documented the conflict and its impacts. She expressed the need for the Commission to work together with Afro-LGBT organizations, particularly given the obstacles that COVID-19 presents for collaboration between the state and civil society.

The civil society representatives expressed the same goal, arguing that discrimination in state entities and the historical absence of the state from Colombia’s countryside played a major role in past failures to address violence. They recommended that the Commission incorporate these realities into its work on non-repetition, along with the poverty and exclusion faced by Afro-LGBT people to this day. They also recommended efforts to support LGBT visibility and leadership in Afro-descendant communities.

Black Lives Matter: The Call for Racial Democracy Resounds in Brazil

After the brutal murder of George Floyd by U.S. police, a wave of protests has called for all of society to descend into the streets in order to fight for the eradication of systemic racism. In a world affected by the fragmentation of political and institutional powers and in the midst of disorder worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which launched a global healthcare crisis, the veil of racism that sustains privilege and forms of neocolonial capitalist exploitation has been pulled back. In the face of such a scene, antiracist reactions have flared up in various countries. In Brazil, a country that daily relives the trauma of colonial racism, the call for racial democracy resounds throughout the Black population.

It is important for us to emphasize that, due to different contexts of colonialization and to the racial policies adopted in their respective histories, any analysis seeking to compare the reactions of the Brazilian and U.S. populations to the George Floyd case confirms once more strategies of oppression within politics of domination. In this hierarchical global system, the United States functions as a reference point for comparisons between the two countries and depicts yet another expression of symbolic violence.

Yet racism is the common denominator in this structure of oppression. It is the connection which summons the descendants of the Black Diaspora in every corner of the world through the motto “Black Lives Matter.” Capitalism’s failure has put so-called democratic regimes in check since a democracy which maintains itself through a necropolitical system that eliminates Black, indigenous, and other non-white bodies cannot be considered as the power of the people per its etymological meaning. Upon being normalized as a form of social organization in Brazil, racism has a great effect daily in the death and the exclusion of Black people and in their access to human rights.

Consequently, any supposition that the fight to end racism in Brazil gained momentum with the current North American demonstrations is to be ignorant of its history. In the 1930’s, the Frente Negra Brasileira (FNB, Black Brazilian Front) [1] strove for equality throughout society but was eradicated during the Vargas dictatorship. Since the 70’s, the Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU, Unified Black Movement) [2] has been combatting all forms of racial discrimination. These movements do not include the armed revolts and creation of quilombos since the days of slavery. During abolition, partnerships between Black communities confirmed their agency and anti-racist political organization.

With the assassination of City Councilwoman Marielle Franco [3], protests against racism erupted in Brazil. Thousands took to the streets to seek justice for Marielle and for all she represented: Black Brazil’s resistance struggle. Her cowardly assassination unveiled the structural and institutional racism enrooted in Brazilian society, as a political strategy of domination that sheds the blood of thousands of Black families. And yet, in Brazil, it is still necessary to prove that racism exists, murders, and incarcerates the black population on a systemic level.

This year the COVID-19 pandemic ignited the social inequalities which manifest in racist ways. At a time when the global population is called to practice social distancing, in Brazil, staying home to protect oneself from coronavirus is a privilege reserved for a small sector of society that is obviously white. Ironically, the choking of George Floyd acts as a metaphor in times of COVID-19 in which the poor and Black population dies the most because of the virus’ fatal respiratory consequences. In that sense, the memory of captivity is made present once more in Black bodies that, upon stepping into the streets every day to go to work, are turned over to the invisible hands of the disease which hangs in the air.

Seeing as how the country will not shutdown, the racist government policy has intensified in face of the virus through the arbitrary use of police violence. Military police operations, with the authorization of the Rio de Janeiro state government, have continued to take place including the killing of 14-year-old João Pedro in the city of São Gonçalo [4]. Due to the publicity the case has gained in society, the Federal Supreme Court had to ban the continuation of police operations in communities during the social distancing period [5]. Taking into consideration from a racial perspective that the police who engage in favela confrontations are mostly Black and are residents of the community, the weight of racist violence reveals that the Brazilian police kill the most but also die the most [6].

In the midst of all this, the significance of George Floyd’s and João Pedro’s deaths resulted in a wave of solidarity and anti-racist struggle that called on white supremacy to take an anti-racist stance. Thus, antifascist movements have joined the anti-racist struggle through the call of Antifa sports organizations. Protesters took to the streets to condemn the genocide of Black people and to demand full democracy [7]. With acts under the banner of Black Lives Matter occurring throughout the country, the hegemonic media, dominated by the Brazilian elite, has not been able to avoid the topic of racism because protests are happening on a global scale and not just in Brazil [8]. Large television networks invited Black journalists and researchers on for the first time to discuss the magnitude and consequences of racism in the world and in Brazil.

Therefore, the anti-racist movement is strategically intensifying and with the help of a manifesto, published in print newspapers with a large readership as well as electronically, that calls on all of the Brazilian population and its institutions to sign and commit to a democratic program that aims to eradicate current racist practices in Brazilian society [9]. “With Racism There Is No Democracy”, the manifesto released by the Coalizão Negra (Black Coalition), which brings together members of the Black movement from around the country among other civil society organizations.

If the suffocating effects of the pandemic outbreak are able to snuff out violence opening the way for a possible racial revolution, then taking to the streets will not have been in vain. The lives of João Pedro, George Floyd, along with the more than 450,000 Coronavirus deaths globally, should be honored through struggle and resistance so that in the future we can rewrite history exalting Blackness through its powerful figures.

In this vein, Race and Equality supports the antiracist and antifascist demonstrations occurring in Brazil and throughout the world and recommends that the Brazilian state support the Black population in the following ways:

  • Implement a democratic governing proposal that guarantees the eradication of structural and institutional racist practices;
  • Ensure full access to the public health system;
  • Ratify the Inter-American Convention Against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance [10];
  • Ratify the Inter-American Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance [11];
  • Create antimilitarist strategies in the fight against crime within communities;
  • Adopt public policies with an intersectional perspective that takes into consideration the special characteristics of the oppression that Black people face.

[1] https://www.geledes.org.br/frente-negra-brasileira-2/

[2] https://www.geledes.org.br/movimento-negro-unificado-miltao/

[3] https://theintercept.com/series/caso-marielle-franco/

[4] https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-52731882

[5]https://radioagencianacional.ebc.com.br/justica/audio/2020-06/stf-proibe-operacoes-policiais-em-favelas-do-rio-durante-pandemia

[6] https://jus.com.br/artigos/74146/policia-brasileira-a-que-mais-mata-e-a-que-mais-morre

[7] e [8] https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2020-06-06/vidas-negras-importam-chacoalha-parcela-de-brasileiros-entorpecida-pela-rotina-de-violencia-racista.html

[9] https://comracismonaohademocracia.org.br/

[10] http://www.oas.org/es/sla/ddi/tratados_multilaterales_interamericanos_A-68_racismo.asp

[11] http://www.oas.org/es/sla/ddi/tratados_multilaterales_interamericanos_A-69_discriminacion_intolerancia.asp

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