Colombian NGO Colombia Diversa will speak before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC Thursday to denounce human rights abuses against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community.
Colombia Diversa spokeswoman Marcela Sanchez told Colombia Reports that the NGO's presentation will focus primarliy on State abuse of members of the LGBT community, in particular transvestites.
Reports of arbitrary detention and physical violence committed by members of the Colombian policy force against the LGBT community have increased over the last five years, Sanchez said.
Sanchez alluded to the deaths of two transvestites in Bogota last week, one of whom was an active campaigner for LGBT rights. The deaths are under investigation and there is reason to believe that the murders were committed for homophobic reasons, based on the way the victims died, Sanchez said.
"It is important for the IAHCR to hear a first hand account of the human rights abuses occurring against the LGBT community in Colombia as well as the rest of Latin America," said Sanchez.
Colombia Diversa expects the IACHR to recommend measures to the Colombia State that may be implemented in order to improve the human rights situation of the LGBT community.
Laws to protect the LGBT community are inadequate, the Colombia Diversa representative said.
The IACHR is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS).
gringomedeliin
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... not sure if the meet the three requirements to file a complaint with the IACHR , from what I read they can file the papers, then the papers are reviewed to make sure they meet the 3 requirements, if they do it is passed on to the commission which tries to help resolve the issue between parties, if that fails then they investigate and issue a report that is private to the State, the filer does not receive a complete report, the State has 60 days to respond (but only if they aknowledge there is an issue) if a current investigation is on going then they fail to meet the requirements need for the IACHR to take action. Petitions may be filed by states, NGOs or individuals. Unlike most court filings, petitions are confidential documents and are not made public. Petitions must meet three requirements; domestic remedies must have already been tried and failed (exhaustion), petitions must be filed with in six months of the last action taken in a domestic system (timeliness), petitions can not be before another court (duplication of procedure). |
