Colombia Diversa launches its latest human rights report in which it presents for the first time a geostatistical analysis showing the influence of factors such as the critical overcrowding index or health care on violence against LGBT people. 

Read the 2019 report here (More than Figures)

Read here the preliminary 2020 report (The way things are going)

Juliana Giraldo, a trans woman, was killed by the army, allegedly at a military checkpoint. Emma, another trans woman, was forcibly removed from a Metro station by five police officers for allegedly failing to comply with the quarantine. They are part of the more than 448 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who experienced some form of violence between 2019 and 2020 in Colombia*according to the latest report "Más que Cifras" by the organisation Colombia Diversa, which details, among other things, that 106 LGBT people were murdered in 2019 and 75 in 2020. (partial figures for the latter year for lack of response from official reports)

In the report, the organisation presents a geostatistical analysis for the first time of information showing specific contextual factors that increase the risk of violence against LGBT people. It was found that, for example, the critical overcrowding It affects them doubly: it exposes their privacy and therefore their sexuality, which is often judged from a prejudiced perspective. Also, the context of unsatisfied basic needs levels of violence against people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are increasing.

In addition to studying these contextual factors, Colombia Diversa's latest report analysed the impact of the police violence and attacks against LGBT human rights defenders. In terms of abuse by police officers, the study shows an increase in the number of victims of police violence over the last six years, which in 2020 reached 477. In the same vein, the research revealed that there are patterns of police persecution against transgender women who practice sex work. sex work, street dwellers and Venezuelan migrants; and same-sex couples showing their affection in public.

181 LGBT people were murdered in Colombia between 2019 and 2020*.

*partial figures in the absence of a response from official reports

The report also presents figures against LGBT social leadersThe result is that 139 women human rights defenders were attacked in 22 flats of which 84% correspond to threats and harassment, more than 10% to homicides and the rest to assaults by National Police officers.

For María Camila Arias, a lawyer with Colombia Diversa and one of the authors of the report.These aggressions against social leaders are a response to a triple jeopardyfirstly, for having a gender identity or sexual orientation varioussecondly, for carrying out human rights advocacyand, thirdly, by to defend the rights of a population that has historically been discriminated againstThis work is not highly valued socially in the contexts in which they carry out their work.

Despite the fact that the Colombian State has sufficient information to prevent the different types of violence suffered by LGBT people, there are no measures or programmes to counteract them.. "All the analysis in the report was done with state data. Although it is partial, it is sufficient to focus strategies for the prevention of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," she says. Gustavo Pérez, Human Rights Coordinator of Colombia Diversa. 

In the same vein, the civil society organisation calls for for there to be a articulation between general security policies with the human rights of LGBT people; as well as investigations by the police and law enforcement agencies. police violence committed against LGBT people, which has an impunity rate of almost 100 per cent.

*The 448 LGBT victims of violence between 2019 and 2020 include murders, threats and police violence in this period.

Read the 2019 report here (More than Figures)

Read here the preliminary 2020 report (The way things are going)