A/HRC/19/41
Europe (OSCE), homophobic hate crimes and incidents often show a high degree of cruelty
and brutality and include beatings, torture, mutilation, castration and sexual assault.26
23.
Quantifying homophobic and transphobic violence is complicated by the fact that
few States have systems in place for monitoring, recording and reporting these incidents.
Even where systems exist, incidents may go unreported or are misreported because victims
distrust the police, are afraid of reprisals or threats to privacy, are reluctant to identify
themselves as LGBT or because those responsible for registering the incidents fail to
recognize motives of perpetrators.
1.
Killings
24.
Since 1999, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions has regularly referred to persons being subjected to death threats or killed
because of sexual orientation and gender identity.27 The current mandate holder recently
highlighted the murders of at least 31 LGBT persons in Honduras during an 18-month
period, including a transgender person found dead in a ditch, her body beaten and burned,
showing evidence of rape and blows to her face from stoning so severe as to render the
remains virtually unrecognizable.28 In Jamaica, a man was allegedly stabbed and stoned to
death after police, who reportedly participated in the attack, urged others to beat him
because he was homosexual.29 The Special Rapporteur on violence against women has
highlighted the targeted murder of lesbians in South Africa, including a case in which two
lesbians were beaten, stoned and one stabbed to death.30
25.
LGBT persons are also among the victims of so-called “honour” killings, carried out
against those seen by family or community members to have brought shame or dishonour
on a family, often for transgressing gender norms or for sexual behaviour, including actual
or assumed same-sex sexual activity.31 While women are generally the targets of this sort of
punishment, these attacks can be directed at individuals of any sex.
26.
Reports from regional and non-governmental organizations point to a pattern of
targeted violence. The African Commission on Human and Peoples‟ Rights noted “an
upsurge of intolerance against sexual minorities” in Cameroon, and the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly addressed related concerns in Latin America
and the Caribbean.32 OSCE reported 44 bias-motivated murders of LGBT persons in 2009
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
“Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region – Incidents and Responses”, Annual Report for 2006,
OSCE/ODIHR, Warsaw, 2007, p. 53. See also Altschiller, Donald, Hate Crimes: A Reference
Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2005, pp. 26–28: “(Murders of gay men) frequently involved torture, cutting,
mutilation... showing the absolute intent to rub out the human being because of his (sexual)
preference.”
See E/CN.4/1999/39, para. 76, A/HRC/4/20 and Add.1, A/HRC/4/29/Add.2, A/HRC/11/2/Add.7,
A/HRC/14/24/Add.2 and A/HRC/17/28/Add.1.
See A/HRC/17/28/Add.1, pp. 114-117.
E/CN/4/2005/7/Add.1, para. 371.
A/HRC/4/34/Add.1, paras. 631-633.
See A/61/122/Add.1, para. 124, E/CN.4/2002/83, paras. 27-28, A/HRC/4/34/Add.2, para. 19; and
A/HRC/4/34/Add.3, para. 34. See also “India: Haryana widows battered to death”, available from
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13125674 (accessed 28 October 2011); “They Want Us
Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq”, Human Rights Watch report,
17 August 2009; and “Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey‟s first gay honour killing?”, available
from www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/was-ahmet-yildiz-the-victim-of-turkeys-first-gayhonour-killing-871822.html (accessed 28 October 2011).
See concluding observations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, (Cameroon),
11-25 May 2005, para. 14; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights press release No. 11/09
9