Countries need to combat trans violence: Amnesty
Countries should take further steps to protect trans people from violence, Amnesty International has urged.
The human rights organisation used Trans Remembrance Day to highlight more thanĀ 1,083 reported killings of trans people worldwide from 2008-2012, with research showing the number of deaths has risen each year.
Amnesty said European countries in particular needed to lift their game, with data from Trans Murder Monitoring show that 64 trans people were killed in Europe from 2008 to date.
Only France, Sweden, Scotland (United Kingdom) and Croatia (as of January 1, 2013) include violent attacks based on gender identity in anti-hate crime legislation.
“Trans people are discriminated against and targeted for violence on the grounds of their gender identity and expression – in Europe and around the world,” said Amnesty International discrimination expertĀ Marco Perolini.
“This lack of protection against gender identity-based violence flouts human rights standards, and fails to acknowledge that transphobic hate crime is a form of discrimination.
“If criminal law fails to acknowledge that hate crimes can happen based on real or perceived gender identity, the hate motive is not thoroughly investigated and prosecuted.”
Amnesty also highlighted the lack ofĀ legal recognition of trans people, unless they comply with a list of criteria that can include psychiatric diagnosis, sterilisation, genital surgery and divorce.
It said trans identities are also still classified as mental disorders at the international level and frequently at the national.
“Compulsory requirements such as sterilisation, divorce and gender reassignment treatments upon which gender legal recognition is made dependent, violate the rights of trans people to equality before the law, to private and family life, to freedom from degrading treatments and to the highest attainable standards of health,” Perolini said.
You May Also Like
Support the Star Observerā¦ while you still can
LGBTQIA+ media is under threat. Queer content is censored by tech conglomerates who amplify bigotry and push out AI slop ā so we receive less financial support than ever.
When our community is muzzled and intolerance intensifies, we need queer media more than ever. Your donation means we can continue paying queer journalists to write queer news.
Donāt rely on the straight lies of big tech ā support Star Observer instead and donate now.
