Transgender Europe: IDAHOT Press Release: May 17 th 2013
Constant rise in murder rates: Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project unveils interactive map of more than 1,230 reported murders of trans people since January 2008.
On May 17 th , The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) is being held in more than 100 countries around the world. The IDAHOT is meant to raise awareness regarding the ongoing discrimination and violence committed by states, societies and individuals against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people on various scales, from homo-and transphobic legislations and forms of state repression to hate crimes including insults, attacks and murders. The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) was created in 2004 to draw the attention of policymakers, opinion leaders, social movements, the public and the media to this issue. The 17 th of May was chosen to remember the removal of homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 17 th 1990.
Trans Murder Monitoring launches an update of its interactive map for IDAHOT 2013. The Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project was initiated in April 2009 in order to systematically monitor, collect and analyse reports of homicides of trans people worldwide. Updates of the preliminary results are published on the website of the ‘Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide’ (TvT) research project two to three times a year in form of tables, name lists, and maps. The interactive map visualises a great portion of the 1,233reported murders of trans people that the TMM has documented since January 2008. The interactive TMM map can be accessed on the TvT website:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results.htm/idahot-2013
In the first four months of 2013, more than 75 reported murders of trans people have been registered.
Sadly, from 1 January 2008 to 30 April 2013, the TMM already registered 78 murders in 13 countries. These are only preliminary results, and the numbers are likely to grow even larger during the course of the year. While often the actual circumstances of the killings remain obscure due to lacking investigation and reports, many of the cases documented involve an extreme extent of aggression, including torture and mutilation. Many cases are not investigated properly by the authorities.
Apart from these 78 reported murders in 2013, the ever-growing TMM archive has registered numerous cases in 59 different countries since 2008, most of which hardly received any public attention at all.
The IDAHOT 2013 update reveals a total of 1,233 reported killings of trans people in 59 countries worldwide from January 1 st 2008 to April 30 th 2013.The update shows a significant/constant increase in reported killings of trans people over the last five years. In 2008, 148 cases were reported, in 2009 218 cases, in 2010 229 cases, in 2011 264 cases, in 2012 296 cases and in the first four months of 2013 already 78 cases. It is important to note that these cases are those that could be found through Internet research and through cooperation with trans organizations and activists. In most countries, data on murdered trans people are not systematically produced and it is impossible to estimate the numbers of unreported cases.
The alarming figures demonstrate once more that there is an urgent need to react to the violence against trans people and to seek mechanisms to protect trans people. Some international trans activists even started to introduce the term ‘transcide’ to reflect the continuously elevated level of deadly violence against trans people on a global scale. Cases have been reported from all major World Regions (Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, North America, and Oceania), evoking an evermore gruesome picture, especially given the very partial knowledge we are able to gain in many places. More detailed information and a map showing the 1,233 reported murders of trans people is available at:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results.htm/idahot-2013
Throughout all six world regions, the highest absolute numbers have been found in countries with strong trans movements and trans or LGBT organizations that do a professional monitoring: Brazil (486),Mexico (120), and Colombia (72) in Central and South America, the USA (75) in North America, Turkey (32) in Europe, and The Philippines (29) in Asia.
The close connection between the existence of strong trans movements and professional monitoring on the one hand, and highest absolute numbers of reports, on the other hand, point to a worrisome question: the question of unreported cases. Beside the need for mechanisms to protect trans people, this connection also shows the need for strong trans communities and organizations, which are capable of professional monitoring and reporting of violence against trans people. Furthermore this connection results in the fact, that the figures show only the tip of the iceberg of homicides of trans people on a worldwide scale.
The new result update moreover reveals that in the last 64 months:
958 killings of trans people have been reported in Central and South America, which account for 78 % of the globally reported murders of trans people since January 2008. In this region, there has been the strongest increase in reports (2008: 94, 2009: 165, 2010: 181, 2011: 206, 2012: 244, and Jan-April 2013: 68) and with 22countries (Argentina: 22, Bolivia: 11, Brazil: 468, Chile: 4, Colombia: 72, Costa Rica: 4,Cuba: 2, Dominican Republic: 30, Ecuador: 11, Guatemala: 36, Guyana: 1; Honduras: 45, El Salvador: 7, Jamaica: 1, Mexico: 120, Nicaragua: 5, Panama: 2, Paraguay: 5, Peru: 12, Puerto Rico: 9, Uruguay: 9, and Venezuela: 64) Central and South America is the best documented region.
109 killings of trans people have been reported in Asia (2008: 17, 2009: 18, 2010: 29, 2011: 25, 2012: 18, and Jan-April 2013: 2), in 16countries (Afghanistan: 1, Azerbaijan: 2, Bangladesh: 1, Cambodia: 1, China: 6, India: 26, Indonesia: 7, Iran: 1, Iraq: 3, Malaysia: 6,Nepal: 1, Pakistan: 19, Philippines: 29, Republic of Korea: 1, Singapore: 1, and Thailand: 4);
77killingsof trans people have been reported in Europe(2008: 13, 2009: 20, 2010: 10, 2011: 16, 2012: 16, and Jan-April 2013: 2), in 11 countries (Albania: 1, France: 2, Germany: 2, Italy: 24, Poland: 1, Portugal: 1, Russia: 2, Serbia: 1, Spain: 6, Turkey: 32, and UK: 5); 77killingsof trans people have been reported in North America(2008: 19, 2009: 13, 2010: 9, 2011: 16, 2012: 14, and Jan-April 2013: 6), in 2 countries (Canada: 2, USA: 75);
8 killings of trans people have been reported in Africa (2008: 2, 2009: 1, 2010: 0, 2011: 1, 2012: 4), in 4 countries (Algeria: 1, Mauritius: 1, Uganda: 1, South Africa: 5);
4 killings of trans people have been reported in Oceania (2008: 3, 2009: 1, 2010: 0, 2011: 0, 2012: 0), in 4 countries (Australia: 1, Fiji: 1, New Caledonia: 1, and New Zealand: 1).
Attached to this press release you can find a map, which demonstrates the absolute figures of reports found worldwide since January 2008.
While the documentation of killings of trans people is indispensable for demonstrating the shocking extent of human rights violations committed against trans people on a global scale, there is also a need for in-depth research of various other aspects related to the human rights situation of trans people. Therefore, Transgender Europe developed the Trans Murder Monitoring project into the ‘Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide’ research project (TvT). TvT is a comparative, ongoing qualitative-quantitative research project, which provides an overview of the human rights situation of trans people in different parts of the world and develops useful data and advocacy tools for international institutions, human rights organizations, the trans movement and the general public. In November 2012 Transgender Europe published the TvT research report “TRANSRESPECT VERSUS TRANSPHOBIA WORLDWIDE -A Comparative Review of the Human-rights Situation of Gender-variant/Trans People”, which discusses and contextualizes the key findings of the TvT project. You can download the research report here:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/Publications/TvT_research-report.pdf