International Human Rights Law Clinic works for LGBTI and Racial Equality in Latin America
In spring 2019, the International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC) sent a team of student attorneys to Bogatá and Cali, Colombia to conduct field research as part of its partnership with the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality). The partnership aims to document the human rights concerns of Afro-descendant LGBTI persons, focusing on transgender persons, in several Latin American countries. After completing research on relevant laws, jurisprudence, administrative resolutions, government statements, and international treaty body reports concerning Afro-descendant LGBTI individuals in the focus countries, the students were ready to begin interviewing in the field.
With support from WCL’s UNROW fund, student attorneys Audrey Mulholland ’19, Hillary Hyduke ’19, Marcela Velarde ’19, and Katherine Ventura Cruz ‘20 traveled to Colombia to conduct field research through interviews with civil society organizations, activists, and government officials. In Cali, where there is a high Afro-Colombian population, the Clinic student attorneys met with student activists from: the University of Valle del Cauca; the governor’s office; and the LGBTI organizations Somos Identidad and the Santamaría Foundation. These interviews provided qualitative data on the realities of what Afro-descendant LGBTI activists and impacted community members face at a local level.
In the Colombian capital, Bogotá, the students interviewed officials from the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia; the National Center for Historical Memory; the Gender Approach Office of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace; the Ombudsman’s Office; and the Bogotá Mayor’s Diversity Office. These interviews with government officials allowed the student attorneys to understand government priorities and future policy initiatives related to this population.
After returning from fieldwork in Colombia, the Clinic student attorneys analyzed and incorporated the qualitative data from these interviews into a draft report. The report focuses on issues including the exploitation of sex workers, disproportionately high homicide rates, violence by law enforcement officers, and impact on economic and social rights such as education, health, and labor rights. Ventura Cruz is continuing with the Clinic this year as a 3L, and her work includes finalizing the report for publication in early 2020.
In collaboration with Race and Equality and their in-country non-governmental organizational partners, the IHRLC requested and was granted a thematic hearing during the Inter-American Commission on Human Right’s 174th Period of Sessions in Quito, Ecuador on November 12, 2019. Ventura Cruz drafted an executive summary of the Clinic’s report on Colombia for the IACHR Commissioners and hearing participants, and she will present the IHRLC’s findings in Spanish as part of the IACHR thematic hearing.
The goal of the hearing is to fill two critical gaps: (1) exploring and documenting the intersection between gender and race in Latin America, and (2) providing specialized coverage of the situation of the transgender community within Latin America who face unique discrimination within the broader LGBTI community. The IHRLC seeks to advance accountability for the human rights violations of Afro-descendant LGBTI persons, raise awareness of the human rights issues faced by the Afro-descendant LGBTI community, and lay the groundwork for a future petition before the IACHR or litigation in the five focus countries’ domestic courts.