A/HRC/29/23 27. Data are patchy but, wherever available, suggest alarmingly high rates of homicidal violence. In Brazil, one of relatively few countries where the Government publishes an annual report on homophobic violence, the authorities documented 310 murders in 2012 in which homophobia or transphobia was a motive. 38 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported 594 hate-related killings of LGBT persons in the 25 States members of the Organization of American States between January 2013 and March 2014. 39 In its resolution 275, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights condemned increasing violence and other human rights violations based on imputed or real sexual orientation or gender identity. The European Parliament (resolution 2013/2183(INI) and the Council of Europe (resolution 1948 (2013) have also regularly expressed their concerns. 28. Reporting from non-governmental organizations underscores the prevalence of fatal violence. The Trans Murder Monitoring project, which collects reports of homicides of transgender persons in all regions, lists 1,612 murders in 62 countries between 2008 and 2014, equivalent to a killing every two days.40 The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs in the United States of America reported 18 hate violence homicides and 2,001 incidents of anti-LGBT violence in the United States in 2013.41 29. Terrorist groups may target LGBT persons for punishment, including killings. 42 In February 2015, photos appeared to show several men, allegedly accused of homosexual acts, being pushed off a tower to their deaths by militants of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).43 30. LGBT persons have also been victims of so-called “honour” killings, carried out against those seen by family or community members to have brought shame on a family, often for transgressing gender norms or for sexual behaviour, including actual or assumed homosexual conduct.44 C. Other violence, including sexual violence 31. United Nations experts continue to express their alarm at non-lethal violence directed at individuals on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Examples include cases of gay men who have been kidnapped, beaten and humiliated, with film clips of their abuse shared on social media,45 and of lesbians assaulted and raped because of their sexual orientation.46 In the Syrian Arab Republic, there have been reports of rape and torture of men assumed to be gay perpetrated by security agents and by nonState armed groups.47 Concerns have also been expressed about the risk to human rights 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 Second report on homophobic violence in Brazil (2012), Department of Human Rights, June 2013 (available at www.sdh.gov.br/noticias/2013/junho/numero-de-denuncias-de-violencia-homofobicacresceu-166-em-2012-diz-relatorio). IACHR (see footnote 28), p. 1. Trans Murder Monitoring results update, November 2014 (available at http://tgeu.org/tmm/). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Hate Violence in 2013, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, New York, 2014 (available at http://avp.org/resources/avpresources/315). See CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4, paras. 27-28. OHCHR, press briefing notes on ISIL/Iraq, 20 January 2015. See A/HRC/23/47/Add.2, para. 49. A/HRC/26/50, para. 14. See CEDAW/C/GUY/CO/7-8, para. 22, A/HRC/20/16, paras. 55, 71, 73, 76. A/HRC/25/65, para. 67-71. Oral update of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 18 March 2014. 9