What does Jair Bolsonaro’s defense of the Brazilian military dictatorship mean to the Afro LGBTI+ community?

What does Jair Bolsonaro’s defense of the Brazilian military dictatorship mean to the Afro LGBTI+ community?

Brazil – April 29, 2019.  The month of April was marked by several protests and political activities in Brazil against the country’s former military dictatorship. These protests occurred because the 55th anniversary of the coup that established a dictatorship in the country, from 1964 to 1985, was in April 2019.

These protests were motivated because Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, had determined that the Ministry of Defense would honor the 55th anniversary of the coup. In 2011, the former President Dilma Rousseff had forbidden the Army to make commemorations on that date.

In fact,this is the first time since the re-democratization of Brazil that a president has publicly and openly defended the military dictatorship. On the day of the impeachment vote against Dilma, Bolsonaro declared that his vote was in honor of Carlos Brilhante Ustra, known in Brazil as the greatest torturer under the military dictatorship.

Many efforts were made to erase the political censorship and torture to which people who organized to oppose the military regime were subjected from Brazilian memory. However, little is discussed about what kind of relationship the Brazilian dictatorship had with the LGBTI + population – especially with Black LGBTI+ persons. Thus, it is essential to ask what the effects of the authoritarianism of the military dictatorship on the LGBTI + black community were, and to what extent the regime created and deepened the violent way in which the Brazilian State treats these lives today.

Violence against LGBTI+ persons in the Brazilian dictatorship

In 2012, a National Truth Commission (Comissão Nacional da Verdade) was installed in Brazil, with the objective of bringing the human rights violations carried out by agents of the State in repressing all those who were considered opponents of the regime out of hiding, as well as to push the State to assume responsibility for these violations. In 2014, this Commission published a report which sought to publicize the violations that have occurred against LGBTI+ persons.

The attempt to tell an untold story of a dictatorship that tried to erase its tracks makes it extremely difficult to assess the extent of this violence, especially when it comes to the LGBTI+ Afro community. However, efforts must be made to overcome the scarcity of official records.

It is important to note that, in the military regime’s view, there was no distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity. All LGBTI+ persons were considered “homosexuals” and were seen as a homogeneous mass. This is another difficulty, because the official records themselves treated those who identified themselves as trans persons or “travestis” as homosexuals, for example. Travesti is a gender identity that exists in some Latin American countries like Brazil that describes people assigned male at birth who take on a feminine gender role and gender expression, sometimes through the use of feminizing body modifications such as hormone replacement therapy, breast implants, and silicone injections.

As the National Truth Commission report points out, there has not been a formalized state policy to exterminate the LGBTI+ population nor to criminalize these persons. However, the ideology that justified the coup and the disenfranchisement of democratic rights and other kinds of violence was permeated by conservative values and an lgbt-phobic perspective, which considered sexual diversity and diverse gender identity to be subversive. This association of LGBTI+ with subversion was used to justify the repression that were perpetrated against them. Therefore, it was possible to see the growth of a vision of the State that saw LGBTI+ as harmful, dangerous as well as contrary to family, morality and good manners. This legitimized violence against this population.

The National Association of Travestis and Trans Persons (ANTRA, for its initials in Portuguese) confirms that trans women, homosexuals, and other people seen as “perverted” were subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, layoffs, censorship, murder, and other forms of violence because they were seen as undesirable people.

In São Paulo, for example, the Joint Ordinance nº 390/76 authorized the arrest of those who identified themselves as “travestis” that were found in the central region of the city for interrogations, determining that the police records of the travestis should contain “pictures of the perverts, so that the judges can assess their degree of dangerousness.”

In 1987, in the transition between the military regime and democracy, São Paulo was also the scene of a police operation that became known as “Operation Tarantula.” This operation sought to arrest the travestis in the main prostitution points of the city. It was presented as an effort by the police to reduce the number of cases of AIDS. More than 300 travestis were detained.

São Paulo is an example of how the military government adopted persecution techniques, with special attention to travestis, in order to sanitize the public space through their extermination, considering them as dangerous in the most diverse senses.

Given the violence against them, travestis had to find strategies to survive. The black travesti Weluma Brum said that she was once stopped by the police while she was a prostitute in Rio de Janeiro. Four policemen beat her, gave her electric shocks, and then forced her to have oral sex with them. Later, she discovered a common strategy among travestis to avoid arbitrary arrests: “We cut ourselves with razor, so the cops would not arrest us, look, I still have scars.

The travesti Thina Rodrigues, from the city of Fortaleza, capital of Ceará, says she was arrested for being a travesti and would always hide herself, not expressing her gender identity in order to prevent to be arrested again: “At the time, the Secretary of Public Security said that Fortaleza should clean its dirt. In the eyes of society, homosexuals, travestis, lesbians, prostitutes, and homeless people were all delinquents who damaged the image of Fortaleza and had to be taken from Duque de Caxias, Fortaleza downtown.”

Black travestis suffered more physical aggressions according to referred by Marcelly Malta “it was common for them to simply disappear after being approached by police officers”.

According to the sexologist Armando Januário, many of them were tortured, taken to beaches where they were thrown in the sea, or had their belongings taken by the police and were only released if they used man’s clothing. This meant that many of them were detained only because their existence defied the norm of gender: a norm that is cis, heterosexual, masculine, and white.

In addition to the Black population, the indigenous population was also severely affected. During the dictatorship, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI, for its initials in Portuguese) maintained two detention centers for indigenous persons considered to be “offenders” in Minas Gerais.  More than 100 persons of different ethnic groups were taken to these centers. The detention centers were known as the Krenak Reformatory and the Guarani Farm. There are a large number of allegations of human rights violations in both places, such as the widespread practice of torture. Some documents mention the use of “inappropriate sexual relations” and “pederasty” as the reasons for the arrests, as well as drugs, prostitution, and vagrancy, among others.

Moreover, the Black intellectual Lélia Gonzalez said that systematic police repression imposed a psychological submission through fear, intending to prevent any form of unity and organization of the group that suffered repression.  Any and all means that could perpetuate internal division within the LGBTI community were used. This generalized repression contributed to the fact that an organized political movement among the LGBTI+ population only began  to exist in the late 1970s, because there was a repression aimed at preventing LGBTI+ persons from organizing.

What remains today

Although it is extremely important give visibility to the violence and the strategies of survival during the period of the military dictatorship, thinking about their effects  on the Afro LGBTI+ population is not enough. It is not enough to ask what happened to this population during that period and to identify what kind of specific violence was perpetrated against them. It is essential to investigate the legacy of the military dictatorship and its effects on how Brazilian State currently deals with the lives of black LGBTI + persons. In other words, it is necessary to determine what remains of this authoritarianism.

Currently, Brazilian police are extremely violent towards LGBTI+ people. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to hear reports, especially from Black LGBTI+ people, who have been physically attacked by police officers or have been mocked by them. To this day, the police control who has the right to be on the street, especially trans women and travestis.

Sexual repression and repression committed by the police that was common during the military dictatorship still exists today. The fact that there has been no break with this way of dealing with LGBTI + persons in Brazil helps to explain how the growth of a powerful conservative movement in the country in recent years has been possible. Additionally, it helps to explain why Brazil is such a dangerous place for these people.

When Jair Bolsonaro, supported by several Brazilians, calls for the military coup to be celebrated and denies that there was a dictatorship in Brazil, he denies the possibility of breaking with a past that has perpetuated hierarchies that determine that gay, lesbian, bisexual, travestis, trans persons and other sexual dissidents  are in positions of political and social disadvantage to this day. This is especially true for Black LGBTI+ persons. More than that, it is celebrated and demanded that the State has the right to exterminate lives considered as undesirable.

We must be on alert for the increasing attempts to attack LGBTI+ lives. We can not tolerate the State celebrating torture and political persecution. Knowing the past and breaking with what remains is fundamental to create possibilities of a dignified existence for the Afro LGBTI+ population in Brazil.

 

O que significa para a população afro LGBTI+ a defesa que Jair Bolsonaro faz da ditadura militar brasileira?

Leia aqui artigo em português

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About the autor:

Isaac Porto – LGBTI Consultant for Race and Equality in Brazil

We continue demanding freedom, justice, and democracy for Nicaragua

Washington, DC, April 18, 2019 – Today marks one year since a genuine popular uprising began in Nicaragua led by young people, which has ended up changing the country’s direction in pursuit of three concrete demands: freedom for those who have been arbitrarily arrested and the reestablishment of constitutional freedoms, rights, and guarantees; justice for the victims of the repression [and] guarantees of reparations and non-repetition; and democracy for the country.

What has happened in Nicaragua

Twelve months ago, a group of mostly university students together with older people organized protests in the cities of León and Managua due to some reforms that were made to the Social Security Law without holding consultations.  The repression on April 18, 2018 against older people, youth, and journalists by government-aligned mobs and groups caused so much outrage on the part of the population that the protests expanded to several cities throughout the country.  However, the repression also escalated and began being committed with support from the police and parastatal entities utilizing weapons of war.  The first three deaths were reported on April 19.

Thus, during the first six months of the crisis, the violent State repression resulted in at least 325 people dead and another 2,000 injured, according to figures provided by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ that installed the most extensive in-country mission in its history: from July through December, the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) recorded the incidents of violence and accompanied the victims until the government decided to shutter the former’s mission and not extend the latter’s mandate, as well as pressure it to immediately leave the country.

Through August, the IACHR missions worked jointly with a mission from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which was itself thrown out of the country after presenting a report in which it confirmed that the State had abused its authority and caused extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual violence.  The GIEI labeled those same incidents as crimes against humanity.

Fearing deadly violence, possible torture, or arrest, thousands of people fled the country: it is estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 Nicaraguans went into exile in Costa Rica alone.

In the second six months of the crisis, the repression was selective.  The authorities arrested more than 700 people and hundreds of them were tried for crimes such as terrorism, assassination, robbery, [and] disrupting public order, simply for having participated in the protests.  That was followed by a ban against demonstrations of any kind by citizens in the opposition; the shuttering and confiscation of independent media and forced exile of tens of journalists in the face of imminent arrest; persecution and harassment of Nicaraguan human rights defenders and deportation of nationalized defenders; and arbitrary cancelation of the legal status of non-governmental organizations dedicated to protecting human [and] environmental rights or performing research.

In February of this year, a new attempt at establishing a dialogue has opened the way to a possible peaceful resolution to the crisis; however, while the government has committed to freeing all political prisoners, canceling the judicial proceedings against them, and respecting the citizen rights and guarantees that were revoked a year ago, these commitments have not been respected and the police continue to prohibit peaceful protests and maintain an intimidatory presence on the streets.

What do the Nicaraguan defenders have to say about this?

“It has been a year of pain, outrage, and impotence, a year in which the harshest and most depraved repression in our history has been unleashed,” note the defenders from the Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos [Nicaraguan Human Rights Center] (CENIDH).

Notwithstanding, they affirm that the crisis “has revealed the unflagging capacity of the Nicaraguan people to persist in its demand for justice,” as well as its high capacity for organization, “despite all of the victims, assaults, and latent threat of being assaulted by the National Police, paramilitaries, and shock troops.”

The Centro por la Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua [Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua] (CEJUDHCAN) also highlights that human rights violations continue in the country, and despite the fact that the agreements in the current negotiations have not been upheld by the government, the Center continues to believe that dialogue is necessary and urgent because the crisis in the country is unsustainable.

CEJUDHCAN believes that another issue that has not been included in the negotiations is justice for the indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants with regard to the violations of the indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, lack of guarantees for indigenous people’s communal property, [and] vulnerability of defenders [and] indigenous community and territorial leaders, among others.

The Asociación Diversidad Sexual Nicaragüense [Nicaraguan Sexual Diversity Association] (ADISNIC) believes three issues of the utmost importance that should be prioritized in the current negotiations are “the return of international human rights bodies; restoration of legal status to civil society organizations who had it canceled; and a cessation of the persecution of defenders and activists.”

In order to comply with these agreements, the human rights organizations agree that it is necessary to be accompanied by international human rights organs such as the IACHR and OHCHR in order for the agreements established by the parties to materialize and inter-sectoral commissions to be created that include civil society, the government, and social movements that act as internal auditors regarding compliance of said agreements.

Nevertheless, CENIDH believes that “as long as there is no political will to guarantee and respect human rights, all of the demands of the Nicaraguan people will remain unsatisfied.”

The organizations recommend that the international community should support Nicaragua in the following ways: continue expounding upon, denouncing, and calling for a cessation of the repression within the framework of regional and international human rights legislation; act as an indispensable bridge in the search for a peaceful solution that guarantees compliance with the accords; continue the conversations in diverse international fora so as to generate greater commitments from other international actors; constantly follow and monitor the state of indigenous peoples’ human rights in Nicaragua; [and carry out] actions to support and monitor the situation of Nicaraguans who have been displaced to other countries, especially countries in the Central American region.

Other ways in which they can show support if the negotiations do not produce the expected results are to promote the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in the face of the lack of human rights guarantees and impacts on Nicaraguan democracy; activate extraordinary political and financial pressure mechanisms to confront the human rights crisis (including on the Caribbean Northern Coast of Nicaragua) that has yet to be declared by the national government; and [perform] actions to support and finance civil society organizations in the face of the closure of spaces and imposition of administrative and financial obstacles, so as to guarantee their work in defense of human rights.

Our stance

On this day, Race & Equality adds its voice to the cries for freedom, justice, and democracy for the Nicaraguan people.  We join the urgent call that broad sectors of the national and international communities have repeatedly issued to the State of Nicaragua to commit itself to the efforts undertaken by many sectors of society to reestablish peace and the rule of law that have been weakened since Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007.

It is our desire that the solution to this conflict that has inflicted so much pain and financial loss on the Nicaraguan people be pursued through dialogue, by guaranteeing critical spaces for political participation, freedom of expression and association, and the full and effective enjoyment of the human rights enshrined in the Nicaraguan Constitution and international human rights instruments.

We call on the State of Nicaragua to have the guarantees of reparations and non-repetition serve as the emblem of the political will that is necessary to ensure that the crimes against humanity which have forever marked the history of the Nicaraguan people within the framework of this conflict do not go unpunished.  To that end, we believe the participation of the international community in the role of mediator is of the utmost importance in the negotiation spaces that have effectively been established in the country, especially in order to guarantee that the voices of the victims, exiled Nicaraguans, and historically invisible sectors are heard and taken into account as a part of the justice process that leads to the reestablishment of peace and democracy.

We urge the government of Nicaragua to establish the necessary conditions to put into practice the agreements that have already been reached by the negotiation roundtable regarding the enforceability of the rights inherent to all Nicaraguans.  To that end, we call for the release of the more than 700 political prisoners who have been arbitrarily detained and unjustly tried.  Likewise, we call for the cessation of the criminalization and harassment of political prisoners, so that their reincorporation into the life of society transpires with due guarantees of their fundamental rights, rather than under conditions of fear and persecution that threaten their integrity and life projects.

We urge the State to guarantee the legitimate right to freedom of expression, opinion, and social protest, participation mechanisms that guarantee societal equilibrium and therefore, q milieu that is favorable for democratic life.  Likewise, we demand that the social organizations, human rights defenders, independent media, and all other opinion leaders cease being victims of persecution, criminalization, and designation as “instigators of social unrest,” and are [instead] permitted to freely and fully participate in the discussion and dialogue as befits a pluralist and inclusive nation.  To that end, we urgently request that the right to freedom of association be guaranteed by restoring the legal status of independent civil society organizations that today are victims of the arbitrary decisions of the government of Daniel Ortega.

We issue a special call to the international community to continue monitoring the state of human rights in the Central American country, particularly at this time of supposed openness to dialogue and negotiation, so that truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition recognize the differentiated impacts the crisis has had on the lives of women, the indigenous population, Afro-descendants, and the LGBTI community, social groups that have historically and structurally been ‘invisibilized’ and marginalized and have become the target of multiple assaults within the context of the sociopolitical conflict that has yet to be resolved.

As an institution that works for the defense and recognition of human rights, Race & Equality dedicates itself to continue working to ensure that the voice of Nicaraguans is heard and effectively taken into account, and so that the crimes committed against those who gave their lives to defend freedom in Nicaragua do not go unpunished.

Remarks in Geneva: Need for International Guarantors to Ensure Respect for Human Rights in Nicaragua

Two Nicaraguan human rights defenders, a journalist, and the relative of a political prisoner discussed on April 4th in Geneva, the current state of the deterioration of human rights in their country and asked for more pressure to be exerted on the Nicaraguan government to permit international guarantors to guarantee the agreements that emerge from the negotiations between the government and civil society.

More than 40 diplomatic missions interested in knowing first-hand about the status of the crisis that began in April 2018 gathered at the event – “Rights, Reprisals, and Repression in Nicaragua” – hosted by the missions of the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Georgia in the Palace of Nations at the UN.

As a result of violent State repression, 325 people have died and more than 2,000 have been injured, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).  To date, at least 647 people continue imprisoned for having participated in civic protests.  In addition, media outlets have been shuttered, organizations declared illegal, and more than 50,000 people have had to flee the country to avoid becoming victims of the violence.

The event was moderated by Roger Carstens, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; speakers included Paulo Abrão, Executive Secretary of the IACHR; Vilma Núñez, President of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish); Aníbal Toruño, Director of Radio Darío; and Winny Sobalvarro of the Committee in Favor of the Release of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua.

Carstens maintained that it is essential that “all prisoners who were detained for peacefully participating in opposition protests must be released; we want accountability for any crime committed against those prisoners and against all Nicaraguans during the last year,” and he went on to note that “the respect for human rights must be reinstated” in Nicaragua.

Abrão declared that without the presence of international guarantors, the relatives of the victims will not have any assurances that there will be compliance with the agreements assumed by the government: “They will have no assurance that exiles will be able to return to their country without fear and without reprisals, that the process of freeing political prisoners will follow correct protocols, that human rights organizations that were shuttered in the country will have their legal status reinstituted, and that freedom of the press will be restored along with the return of the assets of independent media and radio and television stations that were closed.”

Nor, according to Abrão, will it be possible to guarantee that “the electoral system will be able to produce new elections in the future that can be considered legitimate and that the country’s justice system will be in a position to fulfill and respond to the victims’ demand for the correct sanctions on those responsible for these grave human rights violations.”

Vilma Núñez, for her part, maintained that it has been vital for the human rights defenders and the citizenry in general to have the support of the international community, both in terms of the work of the international human rights protection mechanisms, as well as various countries’ commitment to democracy and human rights.

The Permanent Representative of Argentina to the UN Human Rights Council, Carlos Foradori, recalled that last March the delegations of Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, and Argentina presented Resolution L8, “Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Nicaragua,” which was approved by the Council; its objectives are to include the state of human rights in that country on the international agenda and encourage the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to periodically present information on Nicaragua to the Council.

“Our countries continue to monitor the sponsors so as to ensure a dialogue process in Nicaragua.  We believe that an inclusive and meaningful dialogue is the best way to make progress in guaranteeing a peaceful solution to the situation,” added Foradori.

Nicaraguan delegation describes the situation of its country to the UN Human Rights Council before the next UPR

Geneva, April 3, 2019. In anticipation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Nicaragua by the Human Rights Council in May, a group of human rights defenders and members of the Nicaraguan civil society described the current situation of their country to the international community in Geneva. The country has had a deep human rights crisis for almost a year.

This UPR Pre-Session was attended by representatives of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh, for its initials in Spanish), Ipas Central America, the Women’s Autonomous Movement (MAM, for its initials in Spanish), the Del Rio Foundation, the Nicaraguan Platform of NGO Networks, the Center for Justice and Human Rights of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast (CEJUDHCAN, for its initials in Spanish), and the Marist International Solidarity Foundation (FMSI, for its initials in Spanish). All of the human right defenders exposed the violations of human rights committed in Nicaragua with the objective of educating the States that will evaluate Nicaragua in the near future.

Every five years, the UPR offers each State the opportunity to declare what steps they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their countries and to comply with its obligations in this area. However, no representatives of the State of Nicaragua attended the pre-session held today.

The event was attended by 43 diplomatic missions in Geneva, including the missions from Chile, Colombia, Belgium, Canada and Argentina. These missions asked questions focused on the situation of the more than 700 political prisoners, as well as questions regarding judicial independence and the progress of the negotiations that are currently being held between the government and civil society.

Presentation

“There has been a profound deterioration in the state of human rights in Nicaragua characterized by the repression begun in April 2018 and its effects: deaths, persons injured and disappeared, and hundreds of persons now facing trial without the guarantees of due process,” said Vilma Núñez, president of the Cenidh, during her presentation.

Núñez added that “the current government – authoritarian, repressive, and a human rights violator – has plunged the country into a profound crisis marked by social discontent and a decline in the economy that has generated unemployment, the migration of thousands of Nicaraguans, and the impoverishment of broad sectors of the population”.

Since April 2018, Nicaragua has been submerged in a serious human rights crisis that has continued to intensify. During the last two months, the government has been silencing dissenting voices. Violence is more selectively manifested towards human rights defenders, women, journalists, independent media, LGBTI persons, and civil society organizations.

Juanita Jiménez, of the MAM, emphasized that Nicaragua “has weakened the fundamental guarantees for exercising freedom of expression and protest, characterized during the 2014-2019 period by assaults, repression and intimidation, arbitrary detentions, police oversight, the tapping of independent journalists’ phones, and in the case of women, they have been victims of repeated acts of institutional violence, with attacks recorded against female journalists laced with violence and misogyny.”

Regarding the indigenous peoples and ethnic communities of the Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, Lottie Cuningham of CEJUDHCAN pointed out that “they continue living under unacceptable conditions of inequality in a reality marked by violence, invasion of their territories, disrespect for the elections of their traditional authorities, installation of megaprojects without their prior consent, corruption, and impunity.”

Recommendations

Each of the human rights defenders who attended the pre-session of the UPR presented their recommendations to the State of Nicaragua, which could be taken up by the States that will evaluate the country in May. The recommendations included the following:

– Guarantee the rapid, exhaustive, independent, and transparent investigation of all denunciations of rape, torture, and other abuses allegedly committed by the authorities and by those acting as agents of the authorities, demand rightful responsibility, and provide reparations and compensation to the victims.

– Respect the right to social protest and refrain from continuing to criminalize protest. Persons incarcerated for having questioned the regime through their ideas and actions must be immediately released.

– Draft, together with human rights defenders, a Protocol for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Nicaragua in order to overcome the current conditions of insecurity, harassment, stigmatization, and criminalization.

– Promote, together with an international support team, an in-depth investigation of all denunciations made against hospitals and other entities that did not provide appropriate medical attention during the protests in April 2018 and subsequent months.

– Demand that the State permit international bodies to enter and remain in the country and have unlimited access to relevant information so that they may analyze, verify, and indicate the responsibilities and define the corrective measures and sanctions for those responsible for violating the population’s right to health.

– Guarantee a system for recording information so as to provide an understanding of the real state of the violence, sexual violence, and maternal mortality in the country in order to develop appropriate strategies and actions for timely prevention and attention.

– Develop a State policy for attending to other victims of femicide, including sons, daughters, and other relatives, and create a Special Fund for compensating the families of femicide victims.

– Restore the territorial rights of indigenous communities, protecting them from the invasions of “settlers/colonists” or non-indigenous persons and third parties by establishing a dialogue with the traditional authorities to reach agreement on the procedure for freeing 23 titled indigenous lands of encumbrances.

– Consult indigenous peoples prior to initiating planned legislative or administrative measures that can directly affect them, such as megaprojects, extractive activities, or infrastructure works.

State did not comply with recommendations

The recommendations that were made to the State of Nicaragua in the previous UPR, in 2014, “were not implemented,” said Mayte Ochoa, of Ipas Central America, who maintained that the government “in some cases took on commitments it did not fulfill and in others, refused to undertake the required reforms and adapt legislation to international standards.”

150 political prisoners were released in Nicaragua, but 600 remain incarcerated

Washington, DC, March 15, 2019. The government of Nicaragua released 150 political prisoners from prison and officially put them under house arrest in the last three weeks. The release occurred as a part of the negotiations held by a governmental delegation and members of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy to seek a way out of the human rights crisis that started in Nicaragua in April 2018.

The release took place in two different moments. Today, the Ministry of Interior (Migob, for its initials in Spanish) published a list of 50 people (8 women and 42 men) who, as of today, had their detention conditions changed. Included in the list are the student leaders Yaritza Rostrán and Levis Artola and students from Matagalpa, Nelly Roque and Solange Centeno.

“The prison in its entirety is appalling, but there are many women who are real warriors,” Rostrán told reporters, according to La Prensa newspaper.

Families of political prisoners and their defenders have reported on several occasions that they suffer cruel and inhuman treatment, discrimination, sexual violence, lack of medical attention, threats, and harassment by prison authorities.

Another 100 prisoners of conscience (12 women and 88 men) were released on February 27th, the same day that negotiations started again after the National Dialogue was suspended in June 2018 as a result of the continued repression of protesters by police and parastatal agents.

Negotiations

The release of the last group of prisoners that took place today occured after the Civic Alliance retired a week ago from the negotiating table due to the refusal of the Nicaraguan government to give “credible gestures” to achieve true changes. However, on Wednesday, March 13th, authorities announced that they would release an “appreciable amount” of people, which prompted negotiations to resume on Thursday.

“The release of political prisoners is a deciding factor for the smooth running of the negotiation process with the government,” the president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua (Amcham) and delegate of the Civic Alliance, Mario Arana, told the digital media Confidencial yesterday.

According to figures from the Pro-Liberation Committee of Nicaraguan Political Prisoners, at least 777 people are deprived of their liberty for having exercised their right to protest. This means there are still more than 600 people imprisoned for exercising that human right.

According to the government, the 150 people recently released from prison were not political prisoners because they committed “crimes against common security and crimes against public tranquility” during anti-government demonstrations.

This decision to send home 50 Nicaraguans who were imprisoned for exercising their right to protest civically coincides with the refusal of police to allow the march called by Blue and White National Unity on March 17th to take place. The march was called to demand the unconditional release of all the political prisoners. The decision also coincides with an increase in police presence in the capital to intimidate the people and persuade them not to go out to protest.

Since April, when a human rights crisis began in Nicaragua as a result of state repression of civic demonstrations throughout the country, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reports that at least 325 people died and another 2,000 were injured.

Race and Equality demands the immediate release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua.

“We lesbian, bisexual, and trans women are not only killed for being women, but also for having chosen to be women.” – Laura Weinstein

“There is no single way of being a woman; there are numerous ways.”

International Women’s Day represents an opportunity to continue defending the fight for recognition of women’s rights.  It is, however, also a space for calling on the Colombian society and State to recognize the diversity and multiplicity of the women who make up the social construct.  Race & Equality spoke with Laura Weinstein, a defender of the rights of trans persons in Colombia and Director of the Fundación Grupo de Apoyo a Personas Trans [Support Group Foundation for Trans Persons] (GAAT), who declares that in order to make progress in building an inclusive, equitable, democratic, and peaceful society, those diverse women who have to date been ‘invisibilized’ and doubly violated must be recognized.

What is the state of the rights of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women in Colombia?

Although we have made important strides in the area of women’s rights, including Colombia’s diverse women, I believe it is not enough, especially because great progress is still needed in recognizing the existence of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women (LBT), not only because society still does not understand the experience of LBT women’s lives and identity, but also because it would appear that the rights we fight for are different from the rest of society, of persons who have access to various rights, and it’s not like that, which is exactly what places us in a different fighting spot.

I would say that the first thing we need to do is to make our society understand that we are not demanding different rights than those that exist which all of us should enjoy; we are not talking about a different type of rights, but rather, the same rights that precisely because of our sexual identity or orientation are denied us or in the majority of cases delimited.  [An example is] the case of trans women accessing their identity, the complications in receiving medical attention to ensure we are not violated, work, education, and many other social participation spaces that delimit us.  In the case of lesbian and bisexual women, there is even less understanding regarding their rights because the idea that these women are “confused” has held sway socially and that “sooner or later” it will be resolved – a situation that not only violates these women’s freedom, but also makes them utterly invisible.  In addition – and this must be said – trans women’s being women is questioned, that’s why they put us on a different level, as there are difficulties related to being women, but these women have other particularities and other needs, as it puts you in spaces that are a lot more complex.

The lack of recognition of the actual effects on women of diverse sexual and gender identities by the women’s movement throughout the region is still very obvious.  Can drawing attention to the importance of treating these effects experienced by LBTI women in a differentiated manner as a part of the struggle for and defense of women’s rights be considered discriminatory or exclusionary, or do you believe it is necessary to address it in a differentiated manner?

  I do indeed believe it is important to speak about them, speak about their effects and the way in which their rights should be guaranteed, because what is not named doesn’t exist.  And so, by not making them visible we are simply hiding a reality that needs to be counted.  We are additionally saying that nothing’s going on, that all of us are in the same situation, in the same place, and it’s not like that.  A cisgender heterosexual woman, for example, is killed for being a woman, a truly grave thing; but in the case of lesbian women or trans women, not only do they kill us for being women, but also for having decided to be women.  Becoming women puts us in a different place from that construction of being a woman, because let’s not forget that being a woman is not something you are born with but rather, is a construction based on the relationship of the other (males and females) that configures you, yourself.  Thus, I feel it is important to speak and talk about the needs that exist – in this case, of LBT women – though recognizing that in and of itself, deciding to be a woman already puts you in a different place than what is societally entailed by being a man or woman.

What are the principal violations committed against LBT women in Colombia?

GAAT’s work is concentrated on the trans population, though we must understand that we have a direct relationship of struggle with lesbian and bisexual women.  For example, in the latter case, the impacts are completely invisible because socially those women are unrecognized, it is as if they don’t exist; they are women who are commonly considered “confused” or “indecisive” and this clearly leads those women to question who they are, as if something were wrong with them, and, well, it shouldn’t be like that.  In the case of lesbian women, [what occurs are] systematic corrective violations of “what you need is a man” so that there will supposedly be a “rectification” of their sexual orientation and they can thus come to see what they are missing in their lives.

In the case of transsexual women, there is also the idea related to the negation of the privilege with which they are born, because of this, but when a person says “it’s just that this isn’t me,” “this is not what I want to experience or go through,” she has a death that is assumed as a betrayal, and the betrayal is paid for through the loss of life, but it’s not just that they kill you, but also the loss of access to all of the rights that any other person could have.  That’s the type of violence we experience and feel; but surely there are many other things, for example, the subjugation of trans women within the framework of the war, in that they are utilized as weapons of war and sexual weapons.  That is, they look like women and as such are showy, though they also have the strength of men and that is taken advantage of for the war.

What do GAAT and Laura Weinstein call on the Colombian State and society in general to do regarding the recognition of LBT women’s rights?

The call is to recognize the identities and great variety of we women who exist, and not only limit it to gender orientations and identities but rather, ensure that there is no single way of being female, that there be a multiplicity of ways of defining ourselves as women: Afro women, campesina women, [and] women who are heads of households are examples of this.  So I believe that it’s important that the Colombian society and State recognize the very important role played by these diverse women in this country’s progress, which the State has oftentimes ‘invisibilized.’

The same thing goes for society as well – it must truly provide space for women because women are the ones who have leant so much strength to this country and have demonstrated that we exist here and that we can live here, and that the role women play has been fundamental.

What strategies or mechanisms should the Colombian State or society put in place to recognize the rights of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women?

 It’s important to recognize their existence, that’s where everything starts, recognizing that the Other exists, that the Other has a place in society, that regardless of who it is or how the person is, he/she deserves life.  I think that’s where we need to start.  We need to launch campaigns recognizing the existence of other identities, other ways of being, not like others describe them – as being “other women” – thereby implying that these women are “normal,” while those other women are “different.”  No – rather, we should be able to find the multiplicity of what it means to be a woman, because we are exactly that, diverse and different.

International Women’s Day: WE ARE WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE AND ALL OF US ARE DIVERSE!

On March 8, 2019, in commemoration of International Women’s Day, the International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) remembers and stands with the struggle of all women throughout the world for recognition and guarantees of their rights.

Despite the many efforts and clear progress made in the area of rights to improve the state of women in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially as regards the closure of gender gaps, and guarantee women’s real and effective access to health, education, employment, and political and economic participation, the huge challenge remains of overcoming the inequities that persist in virtually all spheres, particularly  when dealing with women who are racialized, ethnic, rural, or have diverse gender identities.

According to the data provided by Michelle Bachelet, the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an article entitled The State of Women in Latin America: 25 Years of Light and Shadows, 9,300 women die every year from causes related to pregnancy and their deficient gynecological-obstetric practices.  For every 100 men who live in poverty, 118 women live in a similar state, a figure that accounts for a systematic increase in poverty among women in the region since 1997 and up to the present day.

Despite the fact that women’s participation in the labor market has made notable strides, women continue to be a minority presence, marked by a series of “micro-aggressions” related to gender parity, the reason for which, according to CEPAL, women’s participation in the labor market has stalled at around 53%, and the 78.1% of women who work are in sectors defined by CEPAL as having low productivity, entailing worse remuneration, low social security coverage, and less contact with technology and innovation.

As regards women’s political participation, the challenge remains to increasing the presence of women in spaces of power to thereby transform the patriarchal structures that make it impossible for women to have a presence in governments, the management of public and private businesses, and in the development of laws.  “As long as we are not allowed to be decision-makers [or] participate in spaces of power, the possibility of leveling the playing field and building our societies under equal conditions will be a utopia,” notes the chief.  

In the area of gender-based violence, Latin America and the Caribbean continue to present the highest rate of assaults against women, ranked 14 among the 25 countries with the highest indices of femicide in the world.  Approximately 2,100 women are assassinated every year (six per day and 175 every month) for the simple fact of being women, according to what Bachelet indicated.

The foregoing provides a quick glance at the state of women’s rights in the region; nonetheless, a series of factors that run contrary to them have cross-cut the recognition of women’s diversity and the particularity of their conditions vis-à-vis the enforceability of rights; that is, rural women, Afro-descendant women, and those with diverse sexual and gender identities additionally confront other types of violence that we should make visible on this day.

According to the CEPAL report Afro-Descendant Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Debts of Equality, the ‘visibilization’ of the historic presence of Afro-descendant women demands recognition of their concrete experience as women who live within a historical, social, and cultural context of slave-owning and racist societies.  Contexts, therefore, that deepen the inequities faced by Afro-descendant women as compared with other social groups, due to their ‘invisibilization’ as subjects of differentiated policies with particular impacts and thus, worrisome indices of poverty, little possibility to access healthcare, education, employment, and participation in decision-making spaces much lower that that of the rest of the population, further undermined by racist and discriminatory logic that is a product of the historical legacy manifested in the ways in which Afro-descendant peoples develop in society.

Something similar occurs with lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex women who throughout history have confronted physical and symbolic violence incorporated into the social group that makes it impossible for their sexual and gender identities to be recognized and thus, have their fundamental rights guaranteed.

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA), persons who self-identify as having an identity that differs from cisgender (socially concordant with the sex assigned at birth) or are socially recognized [as such], suffer from innumerable human rights violations.  In particular, in Latin America women are the recipients of a series of violent acts on the part of male chauvinists who stigmatize and/or pigeonhole them in roles in which they are not allowed to freely express themselves and recognize their identity.  It is thus that on average, the life expectancy of trans women is no greater than 30 years; their participation in the labor market lags behind, a high percentage of them work in the informal sector or as sexual workers, and they confront violent and complex processes for accessing health [and] education services and participating in spaces of decision-making and power.

We at Race & Equality call on all of the States of Latin America and the Caribbean to continue working to ensure guarantees and recognition of women’s rights.  Unquestionably, empowered women break the cycles of violence and poverty, decisive factors in making progress in consolidating societies that are more equitable and democratic.  To ensure that result, it is essential to continue working to break historically rooted patriarchal schemas, especially as they relate to women’s participation in decision-making spaces.

We urge the States to not lose sight of plurality and diversity in the construction of what it means to be a woman, in which it is essential to undertake affirmative actions that recognize Afro-descendant [and] rural women and women with diverse sexual and gender identities, in this way breaking the barriers that historically have systematically prevented the inclusion and participation of this group of women in social life and ensured that their future generations were subject to the same vicious cycle of inequality, racism, and discrimination.

Afro-Colombian organization and American University research group work together to document the state of the Afro-LGBTI population’s rights in Colombia

An American University research group, together with the Fundación Afrodescendiente por las Diversidades Sociales y Sexuales [Afro-descendant Foundation for Social and Sexual Diversity] (Somos Identidad [We Are Identity]), are documenting the violence threatening the lives and [physical] integrity of Afro-Colombians due to their sexual orientation or diverse gender identity.

With support from the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) within the framework of the research project undertaken by Race & Equality and seven other organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean in pursuit of the objective of documenting the state of the rights of Afro and LGBTI persons’ rights in the region, Somos Identidad, in partnership with a research group from the American University Washington College of Law, is documenting and analyzing the political-legal context in which Afro-Colombians’ diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are immersed, with a particular consideration of those aspects that guarantee or make it impossible for these groups of people to fully enjoy their fundamental rights.

According to Johana Caicedo, the legal representative of Somos Identidad, Colombia is one of the countries in the region that has taken the greatest legislative strides in the area of the LGBTI and Afro-descendant populations’ rights.  Nonetheless, no legislative work exists at the intersection of these two variables to guarantee and safeguard the rights of Afro-LGBTI persons.  While legislation exists, its materialization in guaranteeing rights remains weak and this tends to have a profound effect on the enforceability of the rights of this group of people that has been structurally and historically marginalized, added Caicedo.

During the days the Afro-Colombian organization of the Universidad del Valle del Cauca [Cauca Valley University] and American University research group worked together the last week in February and first week of March 2019, they met with sexually diverse black/Afro individuals in Cali; held various encounters with activists [and] representatives of Afro and LGBTI social organizations such as Santa María Fundación [Saint Mary Foundation]; and hosted spaces for dialogue with representatives of governmental entities such as the Ministry of Government of the Cauca Valley, Cali Mayor’s Office, and the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Nation.

 

We expect this research material will contribute to the creation of a map of the state of the Afro-LGBTI population’s rights in Colombia and its consolidation as an advocacy tool in the Inter-American System on behalf of this group of individuals.

LGBTI human rights promoted in Miami’s Ward 4

Washington, DC, February 19, 2019 – Over the course of three days, tens of leaders, defenders, and activists from the LGBTI community on the American continent met in the 4Ward Miami event organized by 4Ward America to share their experiences [and] knowledge and search for opportunities to connect through different activities.

More than 30 speakers participated in the event, held February 16-18, who spoke about the state of LGBTI persons in their respective countries vis-à-vis various topics.  Public officials also participated, such as Fabrice Houdart, a United Nations Human Rights Officer; Susan Harper, Consul General of Canada in Miami; and Congressman David Richardson, a Florida Representative in the United States House of Representatives.

The International Institute of Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality), in addition to being the official sponsor of the event, was a participant, represented by its LGBTI Programs Officer for Latin America, Mauricio Noguera, and several partner organizations: Cristián King, Executive Director of Organización de Transexuales, Travestis y Transgéneros de la Republica Dominicana [Organization of Transsexuals, Transvestites, and Transgender Persons of the Dominican Republic] (TRANSSA); Bruna Benevides, Secretary of the Articulación Política de la Asociación Nacional de Transexuales de Brasil [Political Coordinating Body of the National Association of Transsexuals of Brazil] (ANTRA); and Luna Sharlotte Humerez, President of Organización de Transexuales, Travestis y Transgénero Femeninas de Bolivia [Organization of Transsexuals, Transvestites, and Transgender Females of Bolivia] (OTRAF).

Noguera expounded upon the current state of LGBIT rights in Latin America; Humerez and Benavides spoke on the state of LGBTI women in the Americas, specifically in their countries of origin and in particular spheres, such as indigenous trans women; and King presented on the current state of the LGBTI population with HIV and AIDS in the region, wherein he placed particular emphasis on explaining a law on the topic that is applied in the Dominican Republic.

“It was relevant for our partner organizations to be able to be heard in this type of international forum, to be able to bring information on their countries and present it in this space.  In addition, it was relevant for all of us to come together to dialogue, analyze common problems, establish alliances, and share concerns,” noted Noguera.

Thanks to the support of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States Department of State, Race & Equality was able to sponsor the event and facilitate the attendance of the aforementioned international invitees.

The Symposium on LGBTI Human Rights also addressed issues such as environmental sustainability, healthcare, immigration, and sports, all of which were focused on the measure to which they intersect with the various degrees of security, equity, and freedom experienced by LGBTI persons.

PRONOUNCEMENT: We embrace the attempts to resume dialogue in Nicaragua, though with guarantees that human rights will be respected

Washington, DC, February 18, 2018 – Last Saturday, the government of Nicaragua met with businesspersons from national banking institutions and agroindustry, with the following individuals serving as witnesses: Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, and Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio.  As reported by the government itself, said meeting confirmed “the need to reach an understanding, in order to commence negotiation, through an inclusive, serious, and frank encounter.”  The businesspersons, for their part, called on all sectors of Nicaraguan society to decisively support possible new negotiations with the government.

Between May and June of last year, the Nicaraguan government initiated a national dialogue, with the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua serving as the mediator and the Alianza Cívica por la Justicia y la Democracia [Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy] as a counterpart.  Nonetheless, it was canceled due to the government’s refusal to cease the repression against the Nicaraguan people.

The International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) believes it is essential to resume the national dialogue between the government of Nicaragua and broad sectors of civil society in order to find a solution to the profound ongoing human rights crisis that in many respects has become more acute after 10 months.

Since April 18, 2018, the repression of antigovernment protests has resulted in at least 325 people killed, more than 2,000 injured, around 50,000 people compelled to flee the country as refugees, and more than 700 men and women currently imprisoned for calling for justice for the victims of the repression and respect for democracy.

In recent months, the authorities have aimed their repressive tactics at human rights defenders, women, journalists, independent news media, and civil society organizations in order to dismantle all spaces for criticism.

In light of these circumstances, Race & Equality believes it is critical, in order to restart the national dialogue, for the Nicaraguan government to send clear signals of complying with its national and international human rights commitments, among which we highlight the following:

  • Immediately cease the repression and arbitrary detentions of the Nicaraguan populace.
  • Nullify the trials of and immediately release all political prisoners.
  • Authorize the return to the country of the Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as the mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), which were expelled from the country last year.

We have observed with concern how the apprehension of citizens has continued in various part of the country and that the judicial machinery does not stop imposing hundreds of years of prison, failing to respect the guarantees of due process.  Neither of these behaviors nourish in any manner the fostering of a favorable environment for dialogue.

Race & Equality strongly believes that an inclusive dialogue is the only solution to the Nicaraguan crisis: a dialogue that nourishes the respect for human rights, truth, justice, and reparations for the victims.

*Photo of Oscar Navarrete taken by La Prensa newspaper.

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