Colombia Diversa expresses its concern about the recent murders of seven transgender people and one lesbian woman and reiterates its call to the Colombian State to take action against violence against LGBT people.

14 July 2020

At least 110 LGBT people are murdered every year in Colombia, a figure that continues despite the reduction of other forms of violence in the country. Between 2014 and 2018 alone we recorded the murder of 545 LGBT people in Colombia. Leidy, Shantal, Mateo, Mariana, Elyn, Ariana, Brandy and Sugey are eight of the people who swell these lists; six trans women, one trans man and one lesbian woman who were murdered in the last two months of this year alone.

The figures show the seriousness of the problem. For 15 years Colombia Diversa has revealed how LGBT people are victims of homicide and police violence, how the numbers do not show a significant reduction and how, despite this, the state has not done enough to investigate or combat discrimination and violence. Worse still, there is no analysis that can explain them because it does not take into account the specific risks people face just because they are or appear to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

In the midst of the turmoil, we social organisations are increasingly striving to quickly denounce how prejudice continues to claim the lives of the LGBT population - and to do so in a way that is not just a matter of time, but also a way of life for the LGBT population. with just these allegations and press reports alone, we have recorded 31 murders of LGBT people for the first half of 2020.- And, although it is not a new problem, the message is clear: They will not count on our silence, we will continue to denounce and give a face to our dead, because they do matter, and we will continue to investigate in a robust way to continue demanding that the State establishes an agenda that addresses violence against the LGBT population in its security policies, but we will also continue, through our investigative work, remembering that we have the willingness and technical capacity to support the strategies that are designed in this area.

We join the voices of LGBT social organisations calling for justice and investigation in the face of the murders against our population, the same call already made by international entities such as the IACHR or the United Nations through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to Colombia, or the CEDAW Committee (Convention on all forms of Discrimination against Women) which in 2019 recommended the Colombian State to protect this population "against acts of violence and discrimination; to guarantee their access to justice through the adequate treatment of their complaints, the punishment of those who commit such acts and the granting of compensation to the victims, and to adopt measures to prevent hate crimes".