A/HRC/38/43 and arrest them. Several reports also referred to the use of personal data stored in mobile phones, including the history of live communications and messages, to identify other persons suspected of being gay, leading to arrest and detention. 23 31. Other than State agents, perpetrators of such violations also include local militia, gangs, religious extremists (A/HRC/34/56, paras. 3, 29 and 86) and extreme nationalists. In Central America, for example, numerous reports have been made of violent attacks against and killings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender non-conforming persons, in particular trans women, by criminal gangs. 24 32. Perpetrators also include partners and family members: 25 a recent study in Asia found that the primary perpetrators of violence against lesbian, gay and bisexual persons are within the family. Reports included cases of spousal violence by heterosexual husbands of lesbians in forced marriages.26 33. Underreporting, negligent investigations and prosecution, and almost non-existent convictions lead to a situation of systematic impunity. No element in the chain of justice is unaffected by such factors. Trans women and gender non-conforming persons are often targeted by justice sector officers as negative prejudices and stereotypes about trans and travesti persons often associate them with the idea of criminality. This has direct consequences for their access to justice; their gender identity functions tacitly as an aggravating circumstance when they are denounced and as reasons for disrepute when they denounce someone else. The fact of being travesti or trans undermines their credibility and affects the impartiality of justice officers (see A/HRC/38/43/Add.1, para. 52). 34. Violations and discrimination extend to all facets of life: lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender non-conforming persons are often treated as if they were by definition sick or disordered (A/HRC/35/21, paras. 48 and 58), a process referred to by the mandate holder as “pathologization”. Discrimination affects these persons in their access to sanitation, menstrual hygiene and toilets, in particular in humanitarian situations and areas affected by disaster (A/HRC/33/49, paras. 2, 9, 13 and 30). 35. When progress is achieved, backlash is common. Some States have strengthened measures criminalizing same-sex conduct, or are considering to do so, and impede the work of human rights defenders in the field of sexual orientation and gender identity. 27 B. Hate crimes and hate speech 36. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity may be qualified as biphobic, homophobic, misogynistic or transphobic, or in line with other systemic biases. These violations are not manifest in a country or region only, and there is consistent information from all regions in which States and other actors gather data and render it public. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights concur in their identification and condemnation of heinous acts, including dismembering, mutilation, stoning, decapitation, burning or impalement. 28 23 24 25 26 27 28 8 https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=23080; https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=23282; https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=23369; https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=23424. Amnesty International, “‘No Safe Place’: Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans Seeking Asylum in Mexico Based on Their Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity”, 27 November 2017. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “Violence against LGBTI Persons”, 2015, para. 104. International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Violence: Through the Lens of Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Trans People in Asia, New York 2014, p. 17. Aengus Carroll and Lucas Ramón Mendos, State-Sponsored Homophobia, ILGA, 12th ed., 2017, pp. 5, 10. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “Violence against LGBTI Persons” (see footnote 25), para. 108; “An Overview of Violence against LGBTI Persons in the American: a Registry Document Acts of Violence between January 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014”, press release No. 153A, 17