A/HRC/20/16 crimes on the other. In this sense, LGBTIQ persons, including women, are especially vulnerable to many kinds of violent crime, from killings in private homes to killings in public spaces known as ―social cleansing‖, extortion by blackmailers who threaten to reveal their identity to the public, and abuse from officials, especially the police, who sometimes arrest them.124 73. In the case of South Africa, the recent murders of Black lesbian women demonstrates the multiple and intersecting factors that have led to an escalation in homophobic attacks, despite progressive constitutional provisions preventing discrimination on the basis of, among others, race, gender and sexual orientation. 125 74. The Human Rights Council has expressed its concern about the increasing violence and killings of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and the impunity surrounding these crimes.126 More recently, the Council passed a groundbreaking resolution on human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 127 75. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has held several hearings in the last three years regarding the situation of violence and discrimination against sexual minorities in some countries of the Caribbean and Central and South America. In these countries, civil society organizations have expressed their concern regarding increasing incidents of homophobic crimes.128 76. Reports of homicides of ―trans‖ people reflect that 93 murders were recorded in the first half of 2010.129 Another project has revealed that between January 2008 and September 2011 there were 681 reports of murdered ―trans‖ people in 50 countries.130 9. Other forms of gender-related killings of women and girls 77. As noted above, certain cultural norms and beliefs are the causal factors for harmful practices resulting in violence against women.131 For example, in India the practice of sati, that is, the burning alive of a widow on her husband‘s pyre, has emerged since the country‘s independence.132 To date there have been at least 40 reported cases.133 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 Ibid., at p. 80. Kim Vance, ARC International ―gender-motivated killings of women on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity‖. Paper presented at EGM Oct 2011. Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review. Honduras. Human Rights Council. A/HRC/16/10, 4 January 2011, at para 35. Human Rights Council resolution 17/19. IACHR, hearings on sexual orientation and gender identity available at: http://www.cidh.oas.org/prensa/publichearings/Advanced.aspx?Lang=ES The TMM project started in April 2009 as a cooperation between Transgender Europe (TGEU) and the academic online magazine Liminalis – A Journal for Sex/Gender Emancipation and Resistance. With the involvement of the editorial team of Liminalis, the TMM became a pilot project of Transgender Europe‘s ―Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide‖ research project in September 2009. http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results/all-tmm-reports-since2008.htm See the In-depth study on all forms of violence against women, report of the Secretary-General. Banerji, R. (2009) ―Female Genocide in India and the 50 Million Missing Campaign‖ Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific. Issue 22 Mani, L. (2003) ―Multiple meditations: feminist scholarship in the age of multinational reception‖, Feminist Theory Reader, McCann, C., and Kim, S. (eds), New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 365–77, p. 372. 19