Honduras continues to be one of the most lethal countries for LGBTI people. On the night of July 10, Scarleth Campbell, a trans-activist woman from the Asociación Arcoíris Honduras, one of the organizations that defends the rights of sexual diversity, was shot and killed by unknown assailants in the capital city, Tegucigalpa.
For the Rainbow Association, the human rights defender was a victim of the hatred and violence that prevails in Honduras. “We reject all acts of hatred, stigma and discrimination towards our LGBTI population,” read a statement published on social media.
Scarleth Campbell was part of the Rainbow Dolls group, created in 2008 under the legal status of the Rainbow Association Honduras by several transgender women from the cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela.
The objective of the group is to promote a meeting space for transgender sex workers from these cities to talk about different issues of importance to the transgender population.
According to the data from the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras (RNDH), 10 transgender women have been murdered so far in 2020.
The Red Lesbian Cattrachas Observatory on Violent Deaths of LGBTI People estimates that 361 LGBTI people were killed following the 2009 military coup d’état.
Of all these cases, 71 were prosecuted, but only 28 led to a conviction, that is, less than 8 percent. The past year has been the direst for the Honduran LGBTI community with 41 violent deaths, the highest number of murders recorded in the last decade.
The Rainbow Association reports that in Honduras an LGBTI person is killed on average every 11 days, 33 per year. More than 90 percent of these cases go unpunished.
“This is also the product of a failed state that does not respect secularism. It stems from the imposition of religious precepts that do not reflect the demands and problems of populations at social risk who are particularly vulnerable.
We demand an immediate and exhaustive investigation of the murder of Scarleth Campbell that does not again victimize her so that there is justice for her and the entire LGTBI community”, demanded the Rainbow Association that defends the rights of sexual diversity.
On repeated occasions, both the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) have indicated the urgent need for concrete measures to protect people of sexual diversity.
OHCHR Honduras has condemned the murder of Scarleth Campbell and asked the State of Honduras to carry out an exhaustive, prompt and impartial investigation “that considers as hypotheses the motivation based on prejudice and / or discrimination based on the identity or gender expression of the victim.”
Different organizations that defend the rights of the LGBTI community spoke out following this most recent murder, embracing the Rainbow Association of Honduras and all the people of that community.
Please find here the original news story in Spanish.
