A/HRC/29/23
extremists, paramilitary groups and extreme nationalists. 26 LGBT and gender nonconforming youth are at risk of family and community violence. Lesbians and transgender
women are at particular risk because of gender inequality and power relations within
families and wider society.27
23.
Violence motivated by homophobia and transphobia is often particularly brutal, and
in some instances characterized by levels of cruelty exceeding that of other hate crimes. 28
Violent acts include deep knife cuts, anal rape and genital mutilation, as well as stoning and
dismemberment.29
24.
United Nations experts have condemned the persistence of impunity for these
violations and repeatedly called for investigation, prosecution and punishment, and
reparations for victims.30 Reported shortcomings include ineffective police action, failure to
register cases, loss of documents, inappropriate classification of acts, including physical
assault as a minor offence, and investigations guided by stereotypes and prejudices. 31
25.
In most countries, the absence of effective systems for recording and reporting hatemotivated violence, or “hate crimes”, against LGBT persons masks the true extent of
violence. Where they exist, official statistics tend to understate the number of incidents. 32
Victims are often reluctant to report their experiences for fear of extortion, breach of
confidentiality or reprisals. In addition, prejudicial and inexact categorization of cases
results in misidentification, concealment and underreporting. 33 Failure to investigate,
prosecute and punish violations when reported also contributes to incomplete assessments
of the scale of violence.34
B.
Killings
26.
Hate-motivated killings of LGBT individuals have been documented in all regions.
The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has noted
“grotesque homicides” perpetrated with broad impunity, allegedly at times with the
“complicity of investigative authorities” (A/HRC/26/36/Add.1, para. 85). Treaty bodies,
special procedures and United Nations agencies continue to express alarm at such killings
and related patterns of violence, including the murder of transsexual women in Uruguay 35
and of Black lesbian women in South Africa. 36 In an assault in Chile, a gay man was beaten
and killed by neo-Nazis, who burned him with cigarettes and carved swastikas into his
body.37
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
8
See A/HRC/26/50, paras. 10, 14-15, A/HRC/28/66, para. 11.
See A/HRC/26/38/Add.1, para. 19.
See A/HRC/20/16, paras. 71-72, and “An Overview of Violence against LGBTI Persons”, annex –
press release 153/14, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), 2014, p. 3.
See A/HRC/26/36/Add.1, paras. 85-87.
See CCPR/C/BOL/CO/3, para. 7, A/HRC/26/36/Add.1, paras. 85-88, CAT/C/GC/3, paras. 8, 32.
See A/HRC/23/49/Add.4, para. 23, A/HRC/26/36/Add.1, para. 86.
See CCPR/C/URY/CO/5, para. 12, A/HRC/20/16, para. 71.
See A/HRC/20/16, paras. 18, 71.
See CCPR/C/GTM/CO/3, para. 11, CCPR/C/DOM/CO/5. The IACHR notes a “major
underreporting” of acts of violence against lesbians (see footnote 28, p. 4).
CCPR/C/URY/CO/5, para. 12.
See A/HRC/20/16, paras. 55, 73, CERD/C/GC/34, para. 23.
OHCHR, briefing note on Chile, 30 March 2012.
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