IGTA WORLDWIDE REPORTS
ARGENTINA:
IGLHRC Press Release
http://www.iglhrc.org/news/press/pr_010629.html
UN Rep Meets with
Transgender Activists: Receives Documentation on
Persecution and
Encourages Them To Keep Up Their Work
For Immediate Release: June 29,
2001
Contact Information: Sydney Levy,
Communications Director
+1-415-255-8680, sydney@iglhrc.org
BUENOS AIRES - In a historic first,
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of
Expression, Dr. Abid Hussain, met June 26 with
transgender activists in Argentina, to hear their
stories of persecution.
The Buenos Aires gathering follows a
series of meetings with UN officials in Geneva
sponsored by the International Gay and Lesbian Human
Rights Commission (IGLHRC) this past April. As a
result of these meetings, six United Nations Experts
issued a joint statement, urging lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists worldwide
to contact them about human rights violations (for
background see
http://www.iglhrc.org/world/us_canada/UnitedStates2001June.html).
The UN Experts are high-level officials appointed by
the UN to investigate patterns of human rights abuse.
They report annually to the UN on their findings, and
have wide power to address governments about
suspected abuses.
The gathering in Argentina was
attended by representatives of three national
transgender-rights organizations, as well as by
IGLHRC representatives. A full list of participants
is attached below. "This is a historical event
for us. Let us see how our own government reacts when
they learn that we were received by Dr. Hussain -
because on most occasions our government will not
even talk to us.," said transgender activist Belén
Correa.
Dr. Hussain was presented with
extensive documentation about cases of persecution
against transgender people in Argentina. Participants
at the meeting highlighted the difficulties faced by
transgender minors, who are locked up in institutions
and forced to dress and live according to society's
prejudice and not in the gender with which they
identify. "Persecution against transgender
people should be considered by the Rapporteur on
Freedom of Expression," stated Alejandra Sardá,
"since at its root cause this persecution aims
at penalizing and silencing, even by means of
cold-blooded murder, the transgender person's right
to self-expression." Sardá presented the
Rapporteur a brief about the Argentinean laws that
criminalize "wearing clothes of the opposite
sex." These laws, with penalties of 15 to 40
days in prison, exist in every province in Argentina,
with the exception of the Federal Capital. Dr.
Hussain was given additional documentation and was
asked to intervene in a number of urgent cases,
including that of Diana Sacayan, a transgender
activist who was arrested February 14 in the City of
Don Bosco, Buenos Aires Province, and who remains to
date in indefinite detention, without benefit of even
a preliminary hearing on her case. While in prison,
Sacayan has been denied food for days in a row; has
been forced to share the space with male inmates; and
subjected to verbal and psychological abuse by
guards, mostly centered around her gender identity
(see http://www.iglhrc.org/world/southamerica/Argentina2001Jun.html)
"These documentation would have
been impossible to gather without the exceptional and
courageous work of Argentinean transgender activists
who day after day put their bodies on the line,
facing police abuse and a judicial system set on
ignoring the abusers while criminalizing its
targets," added Sardá. Dr. Hussain concurred
and committed himself to include some of these cases
in his next UN report. Dr. Hussain told the
participants: "I have listened to many painful
stories during my visit [to Argentina], but your
situation is the hardest. You all have my sympathy
and also my admiration because you are courageous,
you are strong, you are united among yourselves and
you are fighting back." Dr. Hussain encouraged
the activists to keep up their human rights activism.
He added: "It is a pity that there are so many
cultural and societal prejudices against you.
Eradicating cultural prejudices is the hardest task
there is. You will have to pass through fire to
survive, but I have no doubt that you will." Transgender
activist Lohana Berkins stated that "we are very
ahead of the time when we lived in hiding, thinking
ourselves half-human, incapable to interact with
society. Now we go everywhere, we talk to everybody,
and we have no doubt that we are humans and entitled
to all human rights. And we do this without losing
what makes us unique: our
sense of humor, our flamboyancy, our trans
perspective."
Present at the June 26 meeting in
Buenos Aires were: Dr. Abid Hussain (UN Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression), Lohana Berkins
(Fight for Transvestite and Transsexual Identity
Association, ALITT), Valeria Bravo (Transvestite and
Transsexual Organization of the Argentine Republic,
OTTRA), Belén Correa (Association of Argentinean
Transvestites, ATA), Silvia Delfino (Queer Studies
Area at Buenos Aires University), and Alejandra Sardá
and Luciana Kerner (both representing IGLHRC). For
additional background information, see "The
Rights of
Transvestites in Argentina" at http://www.iglhrc.org/news/factsheets/Argentina_trans.html.
IGLHRC is a US-based non-profit, non-governmental
organization that works to protect and advance the
human rights of all people and communities subject to
discrimination or abuse on the basis of sexual
orientation, gender identity, or HIV status
END
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FEARS
FOR JAILED ACTIVISTS SAFETY
IGLHRC
March 2000
On Wednesday, March 1 2000, transvestite activist and
street sex worker Marlene Guayas was arrested by two
policemen as she was resting in her house. The officers
belonged to the divison of Public Security and the
alleged cause for the arrest was a 1998 complaint about
"resistance to authority". (Judge Horacio
Azzolin has jurisdiction over this pending case. Marlene
is being represented by Public Defense Office No. 5,
headed by Dr. Silvia Mussi.
As female and transgender
street workers have repeatedly testified over the years,
"resistance to authority" is usually invoked by
olice officers when their orders are not inmediately
obeyed or when they are called to account for their own
abusive treatment. As an activist who has been organizing
her peers in Buenos Aires "red zone," Marlene
has confronted police officers innumerable times, in the
course of defending transgender people's rights to
freedom of movement, work and respectful treatment from
public officers.
On Friday, March 3,
Marlene was transfered to a jail facility located in
Ezeiza, Buenos Aires province. Activists have tried to
provide her with food and warm clothes, but they have not
been allowed to do so. hey were able to talk to Marlene
on the phone, and she mentioned that "a good
cop" is giving her a sliceof bread and a cup of
"mate cocido" (a local hot beverage) twice a
day -and that is all she is allowed to eat. Bailing her
out will cost U$S 200, a sum that her activists and
friends have not yet been able to raise.
IGLHRC is gravely
concerned for Marlene Guayas' safety in prison,as well as
with the conditions in which she is held. While in jail
she is entitled to dignified treatment--including
adequate food and clothing, and the right to receive
visits from her friends and other activists. Such basic
rights should not depend on the grace of individual
officers: they should be general and guaranteed. As a
signatory to the American Convention on Human Rights, the
Argentinean government is responsible for the well-being
of inmates in prisons and jails. Article 5 of that
Convention affirms that "All persons deprived of
their liberty shall be treated with respect for the
inherent dignity of the human person." The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to
which Argentina is also signatory, holds in Article 10.1
that " All persons deprived of their liberty shall
be treated with humanity and with respect for the
inherent dignity of the human person." The
International Convention Against Torture also mandates in
Article 16 that "Each State Party shall undertake to
prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other
acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in
article 1 when such acts are committed by or at the
instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a
public official or other person acting in an official
capacity."
We urge you to write
inmediate letters to the following authorities demanding
that the Argentinean government fulfills its elemental
duty, providing Marlene Guayas with adequate food and
clothing, and visitation rights for the length of her
imprisonment. It is also important to let the authorities
know that the international community is watching to see
that her right to a fair trial is respected.
Please write NOW
to
| Dr. Ricardo Gil
Lavedra Minister
of Justice and Human Rights
Sarmiento 3295,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fax 54 11 43 28 60 39
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Ms.
Patricia Bullrich Secretary for Criminal Policy
and Penitentiary Issues Sarmiento 3294, Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Fax 54 11 43 38 73 21 ext. 2413
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Dr.
Diana Conti
Secretary for
Human Rights
Leandro N. Alem
150 PB, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fax 54 11 4343 23
26
You can also send
these officials email messages by entering the Ministry
of Justice's web page (www.jus.gov.ar)
Please
send a copy of your faxes or emails to ALITT (Asociacion
Lucha por la Identidad Travesti Transexual) alitt@arnet.com.ar
The IGTA
site is hosted by Suzanne Gallagher
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