HRW.org – Human Rights Watch
(San Pedro Sula) – Honduras should act to end an epidemic of violence against transgender people by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting those responsible, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The organization also called on Honduran authorities to repeal legal provisions on “public morality” and “public scandal” that give police excessive power and enable abuse.
The 45-page report, “‘Not Worth a Penny’: Human Rights Abuses against Transgender People in Honduras,” details abuses based on gender identity and expression, including rape, beatings, extortion, and arbitrary detentions by law enforcement officials. It also documents police inaction and recurrent failure to investigate violence against transgender people. At least 17 travestis (as many transgender people are called) have been killed in public places in Honduras since 2004. None of these killings have led to a prosecution or conviction.