PBI-Canada meets with Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras and the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls
Photo: PBI-Honduras accompanies LGTBI+ organizations at the Pride March in San Pedro Sula, August 6, 2024.
The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project accompanies the Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras and the Centre for LGTBI Development and Cooperation – SOMOS CDC.
In June 2021, The Guardian reported that Cattrachas, a Honduran LGTBQ+ advocacy organization, “recorded a total of 20 deaths of LGBTQ+ people in the 15 years leading up to the 2009 coup d’etat. In the eight months afterwards, it recorded 31 deaths of LGBTQ+ people, 15 of whom were trans women.”
That article further notes: “In the 12 years since the coup, Cattrachas has recorded 117 killings of trans women.”
Arcoiris coordinator Donny Reyes has stated: “The biggest problem that we face is the violence of the state security forces towards the LGBT+ community: the armed forces, the police, the criminal investigation police, military police, municipal police.”
Reyes adds: “The research studies that Arcoiris and other organizations have done reflect the same pattern — more than 60 per cent of hate crimes have been committed against us by those forces who should be guaranteeing our safety.”
Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Reyes and Jlo Córdoba of the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls [Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris] at their office in Tegucigalpa on November 1.
Photo: Jlo Córdoba and Donny Reyes.
Reyes has previously stated: “I’ve been imprisoned on many occasions. I’ve suffered torture and sexual violence because of my activism, and I’ve survived many assassination attempts.” Córdoba was shot by a Honduran soldier in 2014, and survived three more assassination attempts in 2016.
Canadian security assistance to Honduras
In 2009, Canada provided $16.4 million in official assistance to Honduras. On July 30, 2009, about a month after the coup, The Globe and Mail reported: “Canada is still providing training to members of the Honduran army.”
After the coup, Canadian aid to Honduras increased to an average of $29 million per year between 2010 to 2016.
That likely includes some of the $5 million Canada provided to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2011 in surveillance and criminal investigation equipment and training. In April 2012, Global Affairs Canada also signed a memorandum of understanding for $1 million in security cooperation in Honduras and Guatemala.
That support is not provided entirely uncritically.
In November 2020, during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights in Honduras, Canada called on Honduras to: “Investigate and bring to justice cases of human rights violations implicating military forces and create a well-defined plan to complete the reform of the police and remove the military from civilian security duties.”
Support for HRDs
The Global Affairs Canada document Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders notes (on pages 27 to 28) as “best practices” that missions (embassies, consulates and high commissions) “should collaborate with like-minded missions in responding to requests for assistance from LGBTI HRDs, recognizing that missions may be able to offer varying forms of assistance and as such may complement each other in providing support to defenders.”
Speaking more generally about Voices at Risk and Canadian mining, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, commented this past summer that “it hasn’t been properly implemented.”
LGBTQI+ migration to Canada
The Government of Canada has noted with respect to “LGBTQI+ refugees”: “Canada has a proud history of providing protection to and helping resettle those most in need. That includes those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQI+) community.”
The Ottawa-based Capital Rainbow Refuge is one of the organizations that supports this resettlement. Their website notes: “Capital Rainbow Refuge is a registered non-profit organization founded in 2010 to support and sponsor LGBTQI+ refugees. Through volunteer-led sponsor groups, advocacy, community building and outreach, we help LGBTQI+ refugees and newcomers arrive and thrive in Eastern Ontario.”
That said, journalist Julia Israel has commented in The Upstream Journal: “Canada is one of the countries that allow people to claim asylum from persecution of their sexual orientation and gender identity but, for most of these refugees, their path is highly uncertain, lengthy, and extremely demanding both physically and mentally.”
She highlights: “LGBTQ+ refugees face a unique set of challenges and vulnerability in terms of travel to Canada, a lack of community-specific resources upon arrival, and a refugee claims process that is intimate by nature.”
Charts: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada refugee claim statistics.
We continue to follow this.
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