A/HRC/38/43
41.
Trans and gender non-conforming persons, especially when they are persons of
colour, belong to ethnic minorities or are migrants, living with HIV, or sex workers, are
particularly at risk of violence, including of killing, beatings, mutilation, rape and other
forms of abuse and maltreatment. A striking indicator of gender-based violence against
them is the high murder rate. A monitoring project recorded a total of 2,609 reports of
murdered trans and gender non-conforming people in 71 countries worldwide between 1
January 2008 and 30 September 2017. Given that the murders of trans and gender nonconfirming people are not systematically recorded and that in most countries a system to
produce adequate data is not even in place, the actual number is certainly much higher. 37
42.
Information currently available suggests that trans men and other trans-masculine
persons tend to be less visible in reports and data than lesbians, gays or trans women.
Arguably, if this is a reflection of less visibility in everyday situations, this may shield them
from the types of societal violence usually affecting other gender non-conforming
persons;38 they are, however, victims of severe violence in the family, in the health sector,
and of school bullying. 39 Acts of violence include verbal, physical and sexual abuse,
including so-called “corrective” rape, and forced marriage. 40
43.
Trans persons are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations when their name
and sex details in official documents do not match their gender identity or expression.
Inaccurate or inadequate identity documents may result in greater levels of violence and
extortion, exclusion from school and the official labour market, housing, health
(A/HRC/35/21, para. 58) and access to other social services, and in being able to cross
borders. In times of emergencies, such as natural disasters or a humanitarian crisis, the lack
of identity documents matching gender expression may even have a greater level of
significance, for example when seeking access to emergency care, services and protection
measures.
44.
Moreover, trans persons are also victim of violence in health-care settings. In order
to practice their right to recognition before the law, they are regularly forced into
involuntary psychiatric evaluations, unwanted surgeries, sterilization or other coercive
medical procedures, often justified by discriminatory medical classifications (see
A/HRC/19/41, para. 57 and A/HRC/29/23, para. 54).41
D.
Violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation
45.
Misogyny, patriarchy and gender inequalities put lesbian and bisexual women at risk
of violence. They are victims of rape — targeted to punish them or, allegedly, in efforts to
“change” their sexual orientation — and also of forced marriage, female genital mutilation,
forcible impregnation, collective beatings for public display of affection, attacks with acid
and “conversion therapies”. In many cases, stigma is reinforced by deeply-rooted cultural
norms and beliefs about masculinity, the concept of the “traditional” family or the use of
women as a source of income in circumstances where there is great poverty. Lesbian and
37
38
39
40
41
10
Trans Murder Monitoring, Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT) (see
https://transrespect.org/en/trans-murder-monitoring/tmm-resources/); Boglarka Fedorko and Lukas
Berredo, The vicious circle of violence: trans and gender-diverse people, migration, and sex work,
TvT Publication Series, vol. 16, October 2017. See also Transgender Europe (TGEU), “Trans Day of
Remembrance (TDoR) 2017”, press release, 14 November 2017 and A/HRC/38/43/Add.1, para. 47.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “An Overview of Violence” (see footnote 28).
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “Violence against LGBTI Persons” (see footnote 25),
para. 104.
APF and UNDP, Promoting and Protecting Human Rights (see footnote 36); Transgender Europe,
For the record — Documenting violence against trans people: experiences from Armenia, Georgia,
Germany, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine, December 2016, p. 51; Human Rights Watch, “We’ll Show
You You’re a Woman”: Violence and Discrimination against Black Lesbians and Transgender Men
in South Africa, December 2011. Also based on submissions by 6Rang, Iranian Lesbian and
Transgender Network to the Independent Expert.
See also OHCHR, “Pathologization — Being lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans is not an illness” for
International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, 12 May 2016.
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