A/HRC/35/30/Add.3 transgender Peruvians working on the streets, with no regard for their self-perceived gender identity.44 In Argentina, transvestites and transgender women were widely associated with crimes such as selling of illegal substances or offering sex services in public, both of which were criminalized in some provinces. In Jujuy and Tucumán Provinces, for instance, arrests of transgender women were characterized by police abuse and violence. 36. In Tucumán Province, Law No. 5140 on police violations, which governs misdemeanours, continued to be implemented, even though it had been declared unconstitutional by both the national and provincial Supreme Courts of Justice. Article 19 of the Law criminalizes the behaviour of “prostitutes exhibiting themselves at the doors or windows of their houses, or strolling through the streets stopping, calling or enticing passers-by” and transgender women were disproportionally charged under that provision. 37. The Special Rapporteur received reports that Law No. 23.737 on illegal substances was one of the laws used to justify discriminatory police practices. The Protocol on conducting searches in facilities and of individuals, issued by the Ministry of Security, enabled security forces to stop and search individuals without a judicial order on the basis of their “police instinct”, in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 45 The police in Buenos Aires reportedly intervened on the basis of their instincts (for example, when they saw a transvestite standing in the street, climbing into or getting out of a car, talking to other people, etc.). Those arrested were charged with selling illegal substances — an offence for which no bail was allowed — based on the testimony of the arresting police officers. Data from Court No. 4 in La Plata showed that 91 per cent of transgender women and transvestites arrested had been accused of violating Law No.23.737.46 The total number of transgender women deprived of their liberty was unknown, as that segment of the population was not always reflected in official records and they were sometimes forced to hide their identity in the face of discrimination and sexual and other forms of violence. 47 38. The Special Rapporteur received reports that transgender women were treated by prison officers in ways that failed to respect their gender identity. Transgender persons with a self-perceived feminine identity and transvestites were usually searched by male penitentiary staff, often in the presence of several of them. In male prisons, regulations forbade items, such as female clothing and make-up, articles that enable transgender women and transvestites to express their gender identity through their physical appearance. 4. Women deprived of their liberty 39. The Special Rapporteur visited a detention facility for women and observed that the women were detained in relatively good conditions. Those who had children under the age of 4 were incarcerated with their children, a day-care facility was available for preschool children, and health-care facilities for children and women were in place. 40. Despite those positive observations, the Special Rapporteur was concerned that women in pretrial detention were held together with convicted women, which raised serious concerns under article 10 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Moreover, women in pretrial detention were detained based on court-issued detention orders of unlimited duration and the length of detention prior to conviction appeared, in many cases, to exceed two years. None of the women interviewed seemed to be aware of complaint mechanisms against ill-treatment or torture. 44 45 46 47 10 Akahatá and others, “Situación de los derechos humanos de las personas travestis y trans en la Argentina” (October 2016). Ibid., p. 8. On 4 September 2016, about 25 Peruvian and Ecuadorian transvestites and transgender women were detained during a police raid, taken to a police station, where 4 of them spent more than one week under arrest. One of them had less than 1 gram of a narcotic substance. On 12 September 2016, the Court of Appeals and Guarantees, in a decision known as the “Zambrano verdict”, annulled the police procedure, considering it “degrading in the extreme”. Ibid., p. 7. ANDHES and others, “Evaluation of compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in Argentina” (October 2016).