»Seit 2011 wurden hunderte Menschen getötet und tausende verletzt«

I. Introduction 

1. In 2011, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 17/19, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights submitted a report to the Council in which she described a pattern of discrimination and violence directed at people in all regions on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Almost three years on, in its resolution 27/32, the Council requested the High Commissioner to update the above-mentioned report with a view to sharing good practices and ways to overcome violence and discrimination, in application of existing international human rights law and standards.

2. The present report draws on recent findings of United Nations human rights bodies, regional organizations and non-governmental organizations, and information submitted by Governments, including 28 replies to a note verbale addressed to Member States on 29 December 2014. 

II.  Recent developments

3. In recent years, Governments in all regions have pursued a variety of initiatives aimed at reducing levels of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. For example, since 2011, 14 States have adopted or strengthened anti-discrimination and hate crime laws, extending protection on grounds of sexual orientation and/or gender identity and, in two cases, also introducing legal protections for intersex persons. Three States have abolished criminal sanctions for homosexuality; 12 have introduced marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples nationally; and 10 have introduced reforms that, to varying degrees, make it easier for transgender persons to obtain legal recognition of their gender identity.

4. In dozens of countries, police, judges, prison guards, medical staff and teachers are receiving gender and sexuality sensitivity training, anti-bullying programmes have been launched in schools, and shelters have been built to house homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. Popular television programmes have integrated LGBT characters in a positive way and celebrities have helped to raise awareness by “coming out” as LGBT persons themselves or speaking out in support of members of the LGBT community. In all regions, LGBT and intersex human rights defenders are more vocal and visible – in several cases successfully challenging in the courts attempts by authorities to restrict their legitimate activities.

5. While these advances are welcome, they are overshadowed by continuing, serious and widespread human rights violations perpetrated, too often with impunity, against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Since 2011, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more injured in brutal, violent attacks – some of which are chronicled below. Other documented violations include torture, arbitrary detention, denial of rights to assembly and expression, and discrimination in health care, education, employment and housing. These and related abuses warrant a concerted response from Governments, legislatures, regional organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society, as well as from United Nations bodies – the Human Rights Council included.

6. Concerns regarding the extent and gravity of violence and discrimination against LGBT and intersex persons have been raised repeatedly by United Nations human rights treaty bodies and special procedures. In recent years, the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has published a range of guidance and public information materials – including factsheets, booklets and short videos – and has sought to engage States in a constructive dialogue on ways to better protect the rights of LGBT and intersex persons. In July 2013, the High Commissioner launched UN Free & Equal (www.unfe.org), a global education campaign to combat homophobia and transphobia that has so far reached more than a billion people around the world through events and via traditional and social media.

7. The rights of LGBT persons have also been a focus of work going on across the wider United Nations system. In his message to the Oslo Conference on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the Secretary-General described the fight against homophobia and transphobia as “one of the great, neglected human rights challenges of our time” and pledged to work for an end to criminalization and for action to tackle violence and prejudice. United Nations agencies are increasingly integrating issues of sexual orientation and gender identity into their programmatic work, including in the areas of development, education, labour rights, child rights, gender equality, refugee protection, HIV and public health. 

8. Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity have also been addressed by regional organizations in Africa, the Americas and Europe. In 2014, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights passed a resolution in which it condemned violence and other human rights violations based on real or imputed sexual orientation and gender identity; the Organization of American States approved its seventh resolution on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, having in 2013 adopted the Convention against all forms of Discrimination and Intolerance, which addresses these issues; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights established the mandate of Rapporteur on the rights of LGBT and intersex persons, having established a dedicated unit in 2011; the European Union adopted guidelines on the promotion and protection of human rights of LGBT and intersex persons, and both the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted resolutions on the subject; and the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued several judgements affirming the rights of LGBT persons to equal treatment and protection under the law. 

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Homophobic and transphobic violence

20. Due diligence requires States to ensure the protection of those at particular risk of violence – including, in the present context, those targeted because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.  

21. United Nations human rights mechanisms continue to receive reports of homophobic and transphobic violence committed in all regions. Such violence may be physical (including murder, beatings, kidnapping and sexual assault) or psychological (including threats, coercion and the arbitrary deprivation of liberty, including forced psychiatric incarceration). These attacks constitute a form of gender-based violence, driven by a desire to punish individuals whose appearance or behaviour appears to challenge gender stereotypes. 

22. In addition to “street” violence and other spontaneous attacks in public settings, those perceived as LGBT remain targets of organized abuse, including by religious extremists, paramilitary groups and extreme nationalists. LGBT and gender non-conforming 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. 

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. Violent acts include deep knife cuts, anal rape and genital mutilation, as well as stoning and dismemberment. 

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.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. 

25. In most countries, the absence of effective systems for recording and reporting hate-motivated 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. 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. Failure to investigate, prosecute and punish violations when reported also contributes to incomplete assessments of the scale of violence. 

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 and of Black lesbian women in South Africa. 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. 

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. 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. 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. 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.  

29. Terrorist groups may target LGBT persons for punishment, including killings. 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). 

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.

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“Anti-propaganda” laws

48. In the past two years, laws have been enacted or proposed in several States that seek to restrict public discussion of sexual orientation under the guise of “protecting minors” from information on so-called “non-traditional sexual relations”. These laws, sometimes called “anti-propaganda” laws, are often vaguely worded and arbitrarily restrict the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. They also contribute to ongoing persecution of members of the LGBT community, including young persons who identify or are perceived as LGBT. The Special procedures mandate holders on human rights defenders, on freedom of opinion and expression and on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association have expressed concerns in this context about developments in Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Uganda and Ukraine.  

49. In some cases, these laws have been accompanied by bans on non-governmental organizations receiving funding from abroad, allegedly in order to curb the influence of “foreign agents”. Such measures put defenders at risk of arrest, violence and discrimination, and can threaten rights relating to, inter alia, health, education, cultural expression and information.

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Den vollständigen Bericht finden Sie hier (pdf).