IDAHoT: 141 Anti-Trans Hate Crimes Recorded in 2016 in EECA
On occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHoT) held on 17th of May, Transgender Europe (TGEU) is publishing a report on anti-trans hate crimes[1], to raise awareness about hate crimes against trans people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
The report “Anti-Trans Hate Crimes in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia”[2] presents a summary of cases collected by TGEU’s Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide[3] and ProTrans[4] project partners in 2016. It reveals 141 recorded hate crimes in 12 countries, reported by nine civil society organisations, with most reports coming from Turkey (86).
The type of perpetrator of the crimes include gangs, private individuals, and people posing as a sex worker’s client. Other perpetrators are the police, public officials, and doctors which highlight institutional violence against trans people. While 25 of the hate crimes were perpetrated by people close to the victim; parents, siblings, neighbours, schoolmates, friends, partners or ex-partners, and co-workers.
It is important to note that these are only the recorded cases of hate crimes, and the systematic data collection and monitoring of anti-trans hate crimes is dependent on the work of local trans organisations and activists.
On IDAHoT, TGEU also welcomes the statement, released yesterday, by a group of United Nations and international human rights experts[5] including the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks “Embrace diversity and protect trans and gender diverse children and adolescents”.
Richard Köhler, TGEU Senior Policy Officer comments “TGEU welcomes this statement which is urgently needed to shed light on the dire human rights situation of vulnerable young people. In calling out the pathologisation of trans and gender diverse people as a root cause of human rights violations against them, the experts put pressure on medical classifications, such as the International Classification of Diseases, to do away with declaring diverse gender identities as mentally ill.”
Notes:
[1] Hate crimes are criminal acts motivated by bias or prejudice towards particular groups of people. A hate crime consists of two elements; an act that constitutes an offence under the criminal law and in committing the crime the perpetrator acts on the basis of prejudice or bias.
[2] “Anti-Trans Hate Crimes in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia” – A summary of TGEU’s submission to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
[3] Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT) is an ongoing, comparative research project which involves a systematic collection, monitoring, and analysis of reported killings of gender-diverse and trans people worldwide, and an overview of existing laws, and practices relevant to gender-diverse and trans people in 119 countries. http://transrespect.org/en/
[4] The ProTrans & Eastern European Partnership Projects document violence against trans people in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. TGEU works with project partners from Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine, to monitor violence and human rights violations against trans people in this region.
[5] Embrace diversity and protect trans and gender diverse children and adolescents – See more.