“The region cannot continue down the path of repressing protests, militarizing borders and public security, environmental destruction and failing to protect historically marginalized communities, such as Indigenous peoples and human rights defenders,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. “The heads of state in the Americas must change course and seek solutions to create a freer and safer continent, with full respect for the human rights of all.”

Amnesty International’s concerns include the excessive use of force to suppress social protests, seen in several countries in the region and most recently in Peru. States in the Americas must ensure that individuals can exercise their right to peaceful protest and that any use of force by the security forces when policing demonstrations is necessary, legitimate and strictly proportionate. The organization also calls on states to end arbitrary detentions, unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, which are frequently committed in much of the region.

Another issue that must be urgently addressed by states in the region is that of human mobility and the need for international protection, specifically in the case of people fleeing human rights crises in countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. It is alarming how restrictive and even inhumane migration policies, such as those of the USA, Mexico, Peru and Chile, have endangered people in need of international protection, rather than seeking cooperation to address the humanitarian crisis at various borders across the continent.

The region cannot continue down the path of repressing protests, militarizing borders and public security, environmental destruction and failing to protect historically marginalized communities, such as Indigenous peoples and human rights defenders 

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Amnesty International also believes that states must find alternatives to address public security crises other than militarization, which has become the norm in several countries in the region. The use of the armed forces for public security tasks has been intensified in countries such as Mexico and Ecuador, which has created contexts that facilitate grave human rights violations without addressing the root causes of criminal violence.

States must take urgent action to protect human rights defenders; the Americas remains the most dangerous region for human rights defenders. According to Front Line Defenders, Colombia was the world’s deadliest country for defenders in 2022, with at least 186 killings, followed by Mexico (45), Brazil (26) and Honduras (17).

The climate crisis is another danger that threatens the region. Although the impacts of climate change on rural and historically marginalized communities are becoming increasingly clear, states’ efforts have been insufficient and have failed to address dependence on fossil fuels, the main factor behind the crisis.

Similarly, states have not done enough to guarantee the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Over the past year, Amnesty International has documented cases of killings of Indigenous leaders in countries including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico in the context of land-related conflicts. Meanwhile, several states have proceeded with or granted concessions to national and multinational companies to implement extractive, agricultural and infrastructure projects without the free, prior and informed consent of the affected Indigenous peoples.

Violence and discrimination against women, girls and LGBTI people is another historical problem that urgently needs a concerted response. States in the region continue to fail to adequately address the very high levels of gender-based violence, including feminicides, and several states have taken measures that endanger people’s sexual and reproductive rights.

Finally, the General Assembly is due to elect four people to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Faced with the withdrawal of nominations from four countries, Amnesty International urges states in the Americas to elect people with the highest credentials, in line with the principles of suitability, impartiality, independence and recognized competence in the field of human rights, and to ensure that nominations and the withdrawal of nominations is firmly based on the inter-American legal framework.

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• The Americas remains the region with most fatalities from Covid, with more than 2.9 million confirmed deaths.

• The United States had more than 102 million confirmed cases and 1,111,000 deaths from Covid as of 14 March 2023, more than any other country on earth. Brazil had the world’s second highest death toll, with more than 699,000 fatalities.

• Peru still has the highest fatality rate in the world from Covid, with 6,481 confirmed deaths per million inhabitants.

• Authorities in El Salvador have detained more than 65,000 people since declaring a state of emergency in March 2022. With nearly 2% of the adult population behind bars, El Salvador has the world’s highest incarceration rate.

• As of last December, Nicaraguan authorities had revoked the legal status of at least 3,144 organizations and closed at least 12 universities. In February 2023 the government forcibly exiled 222 people, and stripped more than 300 of their nationality, including prominent human rights defenders, writers and journalists.

• At least 67 people have died since widespread protests began across Peru in December, including at least 49 deaths from state repression.

• Mexico suffered its deadliest ever year for journalists, with CPJ recording at least 13 killings. Only Ukraine recorded more killings of journalists (15) in 2022, while Haiti was the next deadliest country with seven killings.

• Turks and Caicos Islands recorded the highest murder rate in Latin America and the Caribbean last year (77.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants), followed by Jamaica (52.9), St. Lucia (42.3) and Venezuela (40.4).

• The Americas accounted for 273 of 327 trans and gender-diverse people reported murdered worldwide between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022. Brazil recorded more killings (96) than any other country on earth, followed by Mexico (56), the United States (51) and Colombia (28).

• Mexico recorded 3,754 killings of women in 2022, of which 947 were investigated as feminicides.

• The number of people officially missing in Mexico surpassed 100,000 last year. As of 13 March 2023, the total stood at over 112,000.

• The US Supreme Court overturned a long-standing constitutional guarantee of abortion access last June, threatening critical rights, including the right to life, security and non-discrimination for millions of women, girls, and others. By the end of 2022, several US states had passed laws to ban or curtail access to abortion.

• US federal courts upheld the Migrant Protection Protocols and Title 42 of the US Code in 2022, resulting in irreparable harm to tens of thousands of asylum seekers who were expelled to danger in Mexico.

• Between September 2021 and May 2022, the USA expelled more than 25,000 Haitians without due process, in violation of national and international law.

• Mexican authorities detained at least 281,149 people in overcrowded immigration detention centers last year, and deported at least 98,299 people, mostly from Central America, including thousands of unaccompanied children.

• More than 7.17 million Venezuelans have left the country, mostly since 2015. Of these, over 6 million are living in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

•     The number of migrant children crossing the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama on foot hit an all-time high, with UNICEF counting 32,488 children from January to October.

• Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon totalled more than 11,500 km² in the first 11 months of 2022, the second highest figure since 2006.

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Repression in the Spotlight: Proposals for Comprehensive Reform of the Police sets out the need to, at a minimum, demilitarize the National Police; modify its general structure and functions; reform recruitment, career paths and promotion practices; limit the use of force by members of the National Police; establish monitoring mechanisms and citizen oversight of police activity; and guarantee truth, justice, and reparation for victims of police violence.

“In Colombia, the National Police regularly use excessive force against protesters to instil fear, discourage peaceful protest and punish those demanding change in the country. The Colombian government must initiate comprehensive reform of the police with a human rights focus and the National Police must refrain from violating the rights of those who speak out,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. “The incidents reported during the mass demonstrations and protests of recent years must never be repeated. The Colombian state must take decisive steps towards creating a National Police force that guarantees the rights of all people.”

Amnesty International has also issued 25 Rules for the Deployment and Use of Kinetic Impact Projectiles in Law Enforcement, a document summarizing international standards on the appropriate use of such projectiles. Given that their use carries considerable risks of causing serious harm, their deployment should be governed by a careful analysis of operational needs in each context. The document calls on governments to recognize their human rights obligations and to ensure kinetic impact projectiles are used only in exceptional situations, when appropriately justified and in a careful manner that avoids excessive harm. They should never be used as a means of dispersing a protest, or against people engaged in peaceful actions or simply passively resisting or running away. The use of multiple projectiles should be prohibited.

The Colombian government must initiate comprehensive reform of the police with a human rights focus and the National Police must refrain from violating the rights of those who speak out.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Background information

Amnesty International documented grave human rights violations against peaceful protesters during the 2021 National Strike, including excessive use of force, inappropriate use of less lethal weapons, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, sexual and gender-based violence against women and LGBTIQ+ people and attacks against Indigenous people. In addition, it has confirmed the long-term impact of these violations, as in the case of young people who sustained eye trauma from the inappropriate use of kinetic impact projectiles.

In its July 2021 report, Cali: In the Epicenter of Repression, Amnesty International documented how violations of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, urban paramilitarism, arbitrary arrests and torture and ill-treatment inflicted on peaceful protesters in Cali instilled fear, discouraged peaceful protest and ultimately punished those demanding change in the country.

In November 2021, Amnesty International, together with the local organizations Temblores and PAIIS, published the report Shoots on Sight, detailing 12 cases of victims of eye injuries and analysed more than 300 pieces of audiovisual material documenting the unlawful actions of the Mobile Riot Squad (ESMAD) of the National Police between 28 April and 20 October 2021, all verified by Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps. The report concludes that, in the context of the National Strike in Colombia, members of ESMAD committed widespread human rights violations against protesters by inflicting eye injuries through the disproportionate use of less lethal weapons.

In December 2022, Amnesty International issued the report “The Police Does Not Care for Me”: Sexual and Other Gender-Based Violence in the 2021 National Strike, in which it highlights repeated and widespread practices of violence against women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people by Colombian security forces through the documentation of 28 cases of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, drawn from hundreds of complaints received during the 2021 National Strike.

The following organizations have declared their support for the proposals set out in the document published today in collaboration with Amnesty International:

Asociación para la Investigación Social

NOMADESC

Caribe Afirmativo

Modep

Ilex acción Jurídica

DeJusticia

Colectivo Justica Racial

Justicia y Democracia

Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado

Campaña Defender la Libertad

Fundación Trenza

Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos

Fundación Lazos de Dignidad

Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos

Colectivo de Abogados Jose Alvear Restrepo

Comisión Colombiana de Juristas

Humanidad Vigente

Raza & Igualdad

Red contra el abuso de autoridad

Mocao

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“The development of autonomy in weapons is accelerating, and the growing application of new Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technologies is a deeply worrying development. These machines risk automating killing, treating it as a technical undertaking which raises human rights risks as well as humanitarian, legal and ethical concerns. Autonomous machines will make life and death decisions without empathy or compassion.

The development of autonomy in weapons is accelerating, and the growing application of new Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technologies is a deeply worrying development.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

“Autonomous weapon systems lack the ability to analyse the intentions behind people’s actions. They cannot make complex decisions about distinction and proportionality, determine the necessity of an attack, refuse an illegal order, or potentially recognize an attempt to surrender, which are vital for compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

“These new weapons technologies are at risk of further endangering civilians and civilian infrastructure in conflict. Amnesty International remains concerned about the potential human rights risks that increasing autonomy in policing and security equipment poses too, such as systems which use data and algorithms to predict crime.

“It has never been more urgent to draw legal red lines around the production and use of autonomous weapons systems to ensure we maintain meaningful human control over the use of force.

“Amnesty International supports the call made by governments from Latin American and Caribbean countries today for binding international legal controls on these weapons and welcomes the decision to work in alternative forums, beyond the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) where talks have stalled, to advance this new law.”

Background

The Regional Conference on the Social and Humanitarian Impact of Autonomous Weapons in San José, Costa Rica is the first of its kind and involved regional and observer governments, representatives of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and civil society. Amnesty International is a founding member of Stop Killer Robots, a global coalition of more than 160 organizations working to address autonomy in weapons systems.

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The police do not protect me: Sexual violence and other gender-based violence during the 2021 National Strike documents 28 cases of gender-based violence that took place in seven cities against women and LGBTIQ+ people in the context of the protests. The report details an array of violent behaviour by state agents, particularly National Police officers, ranging from the use of sexist, misogynist and abusive language to sexual violence, which can constitute a form of torture.

“Gender-based violence, and particularly sexual violence, have a painful history in the context of the Colombian armed conflict – a history that authorities have yet to overcome. We received hundreds of reports of gender-based violence during the National Strike in 2021 detailing psychological violence, discrimination, threats, touching, sexual harassment, forced nudity, torture and sexual violence. Having documented 28 of these incidents in depth, it’s clear that gender-based violence was a tool of repression that the National Police used to punish those who dared to speak out and protest,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International.

The cases documented took place in the cities of Cali and Palmira (Valle de Cauca), Popayán (Cauca), Soledad (Atlántico), Tunja (Boyacá), Manizales (Caldas) and Bogotá. Women protesters were broadly targeted, with Afro-descendant and Indigenous women, human rights defenders, journalists, healthcare workers, and mothers among the survivors.

Gender-based violence, and particularly sexual violence, have a painful history in the context of the Colombian armed conflict – a history that authorities have yet to overcome

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International

The report reveals how the violence against women and LGBTQI people was inextricably linked with other factors of discrimination, such as race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Testimonies from Indigenous, Afro-descendant and Trans women reveal how their identities became additional motives for repression, exacerbating the risks of violence. Further, women and LGBTIQ+ journalists and human rights defenders experienced attacks marked by machismo, homophobia and other forms of hatred, and stigmatization.

The human rights violations mainly took place in two instances: during the action the National Police took to disperse the protests and during detentions following the initial intervention. In both situations, acting in official capacity, members of the National Police committed acts ranging from sexist insults and threats to sexual violence. The common factors in all these cases were the intent with which the violence was carried out: the perpetrators were seeking to punish the protesters for challenging social gender norms and taking to the streets to exercise their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

Amnesty International also received information regarding how the justice system – and particularly the Attorney General’s Office – either failed to respond or responded inadequately to the complaints that survivors of gender-based violence filed. Several survivors also said they decided not to file complaints before the Attorney General’s Office out of fear and mistrust.

“As the ultimate head of the National Police, President Gustavo Petro must issue an order condemning all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and demand it to stop. Each complaint from the National Strike in 2021 must be investigated and those responsible must be held to account. The Colombian authorities must also address the root causes of this violence and work with women and LGBTIQ+ people to develop and adopt effective measures to guarantee a life free from institutional discrimination and gender-based violence. This is the bare minimum to begin paving a road to justice and accountability,” said Agnès Callamard.

Prior to this new report, Amnesty International published several statements and reports documenting other serious human rights violations in the context of the National Strike, including disproportionate restrictions on peaceful demonstrations, urban paramilitarism, arbitrary detentions and torture and ill-treatment of peaceful demonstrators in the city of Cali, and eye injuries caused by ESMAD agents as a result of the unlawful use of less lethal weapons.

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“The main theme of the OAS General Assembly is ‘together against inequality and discrimination’, but it is time for governments to move from words to urgent action to tackle the systemic failures that are preventing the full realization of human rights for all people in the region. This requires comprehensive action to dismantle inequality, racism, and discrimination,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

As Amnesty International has documented, the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated the deep structural inequalities in the Americas that are rooted in economic, racial and gender-based factors. Many people in the region, among them women, Indigenous people, and people of African descent, suffered disproportionately in terms of rights to life, health, social protection, and the rights to an adequate standard of living and to work.

Emergency measures adopted by governments to deal with the pandemic have not been sufficient insofar as complying with their duty to eradicate discrimination and actively promote substantive equality in the enjoyment of human rights, particularly economic and social rights.

The main theme of the OAS General Assembly is ‘together against inequality and discrimination’, but it is time for governments to move from words to urgent action to tackle the systemic failures that are preventing the full realization of human rights for all people in the region.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Furthermore, the structural problems in the health systems in the Americas in terms of free and universal access and adequate budgetary and human resources mean that the healthcare systems do not comply with the requirements of accessibility, availability, quality, and cultural relevance established by the right to health.

Almost every country in the region spends less than 6% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on public health, which is the standard set by the Pan-American Health Organization to achieve universal health coverage. Governments in the Americas must, at the very least, ensure that public spending on health is at least 6% of GDP as established by PAHO. To achieve this, they must organize their tax policies, both in revenue collection and expenditure, in order to progressively seek to significantly reduce discrimination and inequality.

The American continent is the location of some of the world’s most important cross-border movements of people. The human rights crisis in Venezuela has forced more than 6.8 million people to flee the country in search of international protection. Meanwhile, the political and humanitarian crisis in Haiti has led to the movement of thousands of people who are trapped at different borders in the region. In addition, as a result of the situation of generalized violence, compounded by natural disasters associated with climate change in Central America, tens of thousands of people from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have set off for the north of the continent.

For women refugees and migrants, their migration status is a risk factor that increases their vulnerability, exposing them to gender-based violence throughout the migration route or in the cities where they decide to stay. A recent Amnesty International investigation revealed that figures on gender-based violence against Venezuelan women refugees in Colombia and Peru have increased alarmingly in recent years. 

In the case of Haiti, Amnesty International concluded that the mass or collective expulsions of Haitian asylum seekers by US authorities under Title 42 form part of a practice of detention, exclusion, and deterrence based on systematic discrimination against people of African descent. The treatment of Haitians by US authorities constitutes race-based torture under international human rights law.

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More than 6.1 million people have fled from Venezuela since 2015, of whom 5 million have fled to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Of these people, more than 3 million are in Colombia and Peru, and more than 50% of them are women and girls. Although according to UN Women gender-based violence is a “shadow pandemic” throughout the region, there are certain conditions that Venezuelan women who have fled their country face that leave them in a situation of greater vulnerability. In this context, the governments of receiving countries are not complying with their obligation to protect them either as refugees or as survivors of gender-based violence. This must be corrected.

Amnesty International condemns this failure of the Colombian and Peruvian governments to protect Venezuelan women following a rigorous analysis of the situation on the ground and the regulations in force. We interviewed 63 Venezuelan women living in Colombia and Peru, carried out 45 interviews with local NGOs and international organizations, submitted 17 requests for access to public information, held 15 meetings with government institutions, and reviewed national legislation, public policies and international standards on human rights. After months of research, we concluded that the governments of Peru and Colombia are not complying with their duty to guarantee Venezuelan women a life free from violence.

I went to the police station the first time and I will never forget the expression on the police officer’s face. He looked me up and down and said: ‘veneca’ [a derogatory way of referring to Venezuelans].

Carmen

The twofold lack of protection of Venezuelan women refers on one hand to the lack of international protection as people who have fled from mass human rights violations in Venezuela; and, on the other hand, to the lack of protection when these women face gender-based violence, as in many cases they are denied the rights to justice and medical attention. When both of these are combined, the level of risk is also heightened. As they do not have regular resident status in the country, their opportunities are reduced to informal and unstable work, labor exploitation or sexual exploitation, while they are also excluded from access to public services, such as healthcare or being able to report acts of violence that they face due to the fact that they are Venezuelan women.

The reality in both countries shows that a major obstacle to guaranteeing of the rights of Venezuelan women lies in xenophobia and discrimination on the basis of their gender and nationality. Officials handling the cases of Venezuelan survivors of gender-based violence – prosecutors, police officers, medical staff and immigration officials – often display compounded stereotypes in their behaviour, that is to say, they discriminate against women not only based on their gender but also based on other contributing factors such as migration status, nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity, among other factors. This means that very often they are discriminated against and re-victimized due to a combination of factors: due to the fact that they are women, Venezuelan, migrants and even due to being in a situation of poverty. Carmen, a Venezuelan woman in Peru whose real name we are not using in order to protect her identity, shared her own experience with us: “I went to the police station the first time and I will never forget the expression on the police officer’s face. He looked me up and down and said: ‘veneca’ [a derogatory way of referring to Venezuelans].”

We call on the Colombian and Peruvian authorities to correct this course urgently, ensuring protection for Venezuelan women in both countries. First and foremost, they must guarantee effective access to international protection and migration status regularization mechanisms. Among other things, this implies removing exclusionary and arbitrary requirements such as having entered the country prior to a certain date and providing documentary evidence of this or having a specific identity document.

Secondly, Colombia and Peru must guarantee that the frontline public officials handling the cases of Venezuelan women survivors of gender-based violence receive initial and ongoing adequate, systematic, and mandatory training in relation to the prevention and detection of gender-based violence. These training programmes must be centred around challenging gender stereotypes and handling the specific needs of women refugees and migrants.

These are the first steps that the Peruvian and Colombian authorities must take in order to guarantee the protection of Venezuelan women who have faced and continue to face constant discrimination and violence. In the face of a crisis of this magnitude, governments must be key players in finding the solution, not major absentees.

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“Protection from gender-based violence should be a priority for all states in the Americas, as should the protection of those fleeing massive human rights violations in their countries of origin. Instead, Venezuelan refugee women are facing a double and brutal lack of protection, as our report on the situation in Colombia and Peru reveals,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

More than six million people have fled Venezuela in recent years because of massive human rights violations. Colombia and Peru have received the largest numbers of Venezuelans, together hosting more than 50% of all those who have fled Venezuela (1.84 million and 1.29 million respectively). Amnesty International believes that Venezuelans are in need of international protection and have the right to request that their refugee status be recognized.

Protection from gender-based violence should be a priority for all states in the Americas, as should the protection of those fleeing massive human rights violations in their countries of origin 

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

This new report highlights how Venezuelan refugee women, who represent 50% and 58% of the Venezuelan population in Colombia and Peru respectively, face violence and discrimination in all aspects of their lives because of their gender and nationality. In public spaces, they face attacks both along the migration routes and in the places where they settle. In the family, they face economic, patrimonial, physical and sexual violence, predominantly from partners or former partners. And in the work environment, they experience various forms of violence and labour exploitation, including being co-opted for work for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Faced with this pervasive violence, Amnesty International has concluded that the Colombian and Peruvian states are manifestly not complying with their obligation to guarantee a life free from violence and discrimination to Venezuelan refugee women, or to guarantee access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence.

“Many Venezuelan women who are victims of male violence and whose lives are at risk prefer not to report for fear of being expelled from the country owing to their documentation status. The violence and risks they face are exacerbated by the absence of specialized protocols to support and protect them. Regularizing their migration status is a fundamental step so that they can report the violence they experience,” said Marina Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru.

Extensive research was carried out during the first half of 2022, virtually and in the field, including visits to Lima and Tumbes in Peru, and Bogotá, Cúcuta and Soacha in Colombia. For this report, Amnesty International interviewed 63 Venezuelan refugee women and conducted 45 research interviews with civil society organizations, including Venezuelan women’s organizations; international agencies, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UN Women; and state institutions.

The violence and risks they face are exacerbated by the absence of specialized protocols to support and protect them

Mariana Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru

According to official figures, gender-based violence against Venezuelan refugee women in Colombia increased by 71% between 2018 and 2021, and in Peru by 31% between 2019 and 2021. Xenophobia, migration status, myths about foreign nationals causing security issues, and prejudices related to women’s perceived sexuality, coupled with socially predetermined gender roles, increase the risks faced by Venezuelan refugee women.

The report reveals multiple areas where the state has failed to ensure protection in both Colombia and Peru. Firstly, Venezuelan women do not have effective access to international protection and migration regularization processes, which constitutes a primary and significant obstacle to ensuring protection of their other rights.

Secondly, the Colombian and Peruvian states do not guarantee the right of Venezuelan women to access justice and health services without discrimination. Among many shortcomings in state responses in both countries, the research exposes the lack of awareness on the part of officials responsible for addressing the needs of survivors of gender-based violence about the rights, care pathways and protection measures that Venezuelan women should enjoy, as well as stereotypes related to the nationality and gender of these women, or their gender identity. It also exposes the lack of availability of and access to temporary shelters and the lack of adequate statistical information.

Amnesty International calls on the Colombian and Peruvian authorities to take immediate measures to ensure that Venezuelan women can enjoy a life free from violence and without discrimination based on gender, nationality, migration status or any other grounds. In particular, the Colombian and Peruvian governments should combat stigmatization of and discrimination against Venezuelan women, ensure their access to international protection, ensure effective access to justice, improve measures to prevent and address gender-based violence, and ensure comprehensive healthcare for women survivors of gender-based violence.

For more information or to arrange an interview, ple

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Amnesty International press office (Amnesty International Americas): press@amnesty.org

Cecilia Niezen (Amnesty International Perú): c.niezen@amnistia.org.pe

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• As of May 2022, more than 6 million Venezuelans have left their country. Of these, more than 5 million are currently in another country in Latin American. Colombia and Peru have received the largest number of Venezuelan refugees:
  • 1.84 million people in Colombia
  • 1.29 million people in Peru.
• Women account for 50% of refugees in Colombia and 58% in Peru.  

Overall figures on gender-based violence in Colombia and Peru:

• In Colombia, the Comprehensive System on Gender-Based Violence (SIVIGE) reported 122,758 cases of gender-based violence in 2020:
  • 58,904 cases of physical violence
  • 31,635 cases of sexual violence
  • 18,967 cases of neglect and desertion
  • 9,782 cases of psychological violence.
• In Peru, the Aurora Programme, via the Women’s Emergency Centres (CEMs), registered 114,495 cases of gender-based violence in 2020*:
  • 55,995 cases of psychological violence
  • 44,125 cases of physical violence
  • 13,843 cases of sexual violence
  • 532 cases of patrimonial violence

Figures on gender-based violence against Venezuelan refugee women:

• Despite high levels of under-reporting, gender-based violence against refugee women has increased in Colombia and Peru.
  • In Colombia, the number of cases of gender-based violence increased from 166 cases reported in 2017, to 2,430 in 2018 and 4,165 in 2020.
    • 80.89% of cases of violence against Venezuelan women in 2020 occurred in the home, 11.5% in the street and 7.6% in other spaces.
  • In Peru, the number of cases of gender-based violence against refugee women rose from 1,384 in 2019 to 1,818 in 2021*.
• In Colombia, 24.1% of women have experienced discrimination or have been unfairly treated because they are Venezuelan refugees. Of these, 58.8% said that they had experienced such violence in the street.
• In Peru, about 70% of the foreign nationals supported in the CEMs between 2018 and 2021 were Venezuelan women*.
  • The number of cases supported tripled, from 250 in 2017, to 759 in 2018 and 2,022 in 2019.
  • Between January and March 2022, the CEMs reported providing 681 services to foreign women, which suggests that the demand for care services from Venezuelan refugee women continues to increase. 
• The figures recorded are low with respect to the percentage of Venezuelan women in each country, evidence of the under-reporting of cases of gender-based violence against Venezuelan refugee women.
  • In Colombia, the 4,165 cases represent just 0.45% of the Venezuelan women estimated to live in the country.
  • In Peru, the 1,102 cases registered represent just 0.12% of the Venezuelan female population in the country.

Workplace violence against Venezuelan refugee women:

• In both Colombia and Peru, there are high rates of people working in the informal sector.
  • In Colombia, between December 2021 and February 2022, 48% of the working-age population was working in the informal sector, women make up 42.7% of this total.
  • In Peru, in 2021, the percentage of people working in the informal sector reached 76%, but the information does not disaggregate the percentage of women.
• Venezuelan women active in the Colombian labour market:
  • 82% reported experiencing difficulties in obtaining paid work.
  • Of that 82%, only 16% had a written contract, compared to 84% who said they had a verbal contract.
  • In Colombia, the (unpaid) workload of Venezuelan women in the home is higher than that of Colombian women. A total of 46.7% of the Venezuelan migrant women in employment and 53.1% of those not in employment said that they devote at least 20 hours a week to childcare; the comparable figures for Colombian women are 35.3% and 30.6%.
• Venezuelan women active in the labour market in Peru:
  • 29% of foreign women are in paid work, 34% work on an unpaid basis and in 37% of cases their employment status could not be determined.
  • 22% of the women have completed secondary education and 18% have completed technical or higher education. It is important to note that Venezuelan women make up 74% of foreign women in Peru.

Failure to ensure access to international protection and regularization processes:

Colombia:

• Refuge:
  • As of 30 June 2021, the authorities had received 31,400 applications for refugee status and recognized 1,300.
  • The low number of asylum applications may be related to the limited access to existing information on this process. 
• Other forms of regularization:
  • As of 26 May 2022, Temporary Protection Status (PPT) had been approved in 1,207,403 cases.
  • Among the challenges that women face in accessing PPTs are: precarious economic conditions, lack of access to electronic media and the internet, and the fact that they cannot submitting documents proving their were in the country prior to the deadline.

Peru:

• Refuge:
  • The state has recognized the refugee status of 4,100 people, out of 531,000 applications submitted to the authorities.
• Other forms of regularization:
  • As of 2020, Peru has issued Temporary Residence Permits (CPPs). According to the Office of the Superintendent for Migration, between 9 July 2021 and 14 May 2022, 165,307 CPPs were granted to Venezuelan people.
  • Between 2019 and 2021, the Office of the Superintendent for Migration approved 2,070 applications for Migratory Status due to Vulnerability, of which 897 were to Venezuelan refugee women and 963 to Venezuelan men.

Failure to guarantee access to justice for Venezuelan refugee women:

• Lack of knowledge among Venezuelan women about their rights and the legal remedies available
• Lack of information on care pathways
• Authorities’ lack of knowledge of the regulations: in both countries, the authorities require women to document their migration status as a condition of receiving their complaints, despite the fact that the law does not provide for this.
• The persistence of compound stereotypes (the women’s gender + nationality) which are deeply rooted in Colombian and Peruvian society and are replicated in the field of justice, which blames women and stigmatizes, discriminates against and revictimizes them.
• Difficulty in reporting gender-based violence in the workplace (particularly in the informal sector) because of the precarious economic and employment situation, as well as the lack of regularization and discrimination in access to decent work.

Failure to ensure protection from gender-based violence for Venezuelan refugee women:

• Absence of the state, despite the existence of regulations and protocols on gender-based violence:
  • In Colombia, in 2021, 82.92% of complaints of domestic violence were at the investigation stage, 16.09% of cases had reached trial and 0.8%had reached sentencing stage. In relation to sexual crimes, 88.19% of cases of sexual crimes against women in 2021 were at the investigation stage, 6.85% had reached trial and 0.13% sentencing.
  • In Peru, in 2020 only 6 out of 138 cases of feminicide (that is, 4%) resulted in convictions for the crime of feminicide.
• Lack of other protective measures, such as shelters:
  • International standards state that there should be a shelter for every 100,000 inhabitants, which guarantees safe emergency refuge and provides qualified counselling and assistance in finding stable housing.
    • In Lima, Peru, there are two shelters run by the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima and seven run by the Ministry for Women’s Affairs (MIMP) for a population of more than 10 million inhabitants.
    • In the border department of Norte de Santander, Colombia, there are only two shelters, funded through international cooperation.

Failure to guarantee access to healthcare for Venezuelan refugee women:

Obstacles to accessing healthcare services for Venezuelan refugee women:

• Care is only provided in emergency situations.
• Lack of a clear definition for frontline public officials of what is considered an emergency in cases of victims of gender-based violence, including sexual violence.

*Source: Aurora Programme data

The post Facts and figures: Gender-based violence against Venezuelan refugee women in Colombia and Peru appeared first on Amnesty International.

Marco is a 28-year-old trans man who has been living in Lima for four years. He came to Peru from Caracas in search of better living conditions as the social, economic and political deterioration of his country made it unsustainable to stay there. As of May 2022, the mass displacement crisis from Venezuela has led to more than six million refugees around the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The reasons for fleeing are manifold: lack of safety, violence, the constant threat to human rights and the lack of food and medicine. As an only child, Marco took responsibility for helping his parents, but he no longer had any options in his country. He didn’t think twice when his boss closed the café where he worked, saying that he was going to Peru with his family and that maybe they could make the journey together. Marco imagined that it was not going to be easy to start from scratch, but he quickly realised that opportunities for Venezuelan LGBTIQ+ refugees are even more restricted and doors close more easily. “There is always someone who says something horrible, or if I talk and my accent comes out they say, “go back to your own country” or they won’t let you through or they ignore you,” he says. “And it really hurts me because sometimes I want to go and buy something and there are several people there but they don’t serve me, even if I’m saying, “excuse me, please.” They don’t look at me, they ignore me and sometimes I try not to let it affect me but being invisible right in front of people is not nice, especially when you need to communicate something.”

The discrimination adds up, is interlinked, and leads to LGBTIQ+ people who arrive from Venezuela to countries such as Colombia and Peru suffering a constant denial of their rights. And although the initialism LGBTIQ+ is used to refer to people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and sexual characteristics, this does not mean that they are a homogeneous group. On the contrary, each of these letters contains within it a variety of experiences which are combined with social class, skin colour or migration status. In addition, gender expression, which forms part of these diverse identities, plays a very important role in how each person is treated by society as attitudes, clothing, gestures etc. are considered conventionally masculine or feminine and anyone who does not conform with those is viewed with suspicion.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

According to research by organizations such as Caribe Afirmativo in Colombia or Presente in Peru, the segregation experienced by these people is the result of the intersection between their refugee status and their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or diverse sexual characteristics. Marco, who has not had hormone treatment or surgery, believes that his appearance – outside the norm – is used to discriminate against him. “People basically see me as a butch woman. They don’t like it because it looks bad to them. They are looking for people to be either women or men and it is as though I don’t fit into either of those categories. And then if I also say that I am Venezuelan, well… you don’t know how difficult it is.”

People basically see me as a butch woman. They don’t like it because it looks bad to them. They are looking for people to be either women or men and it is as though I don’t fit into either of those categories. And then if I also say that I am Venezuelan, well… you don’t know how difficult it is.

Marco

Marco believes that the worst discrimination that he has experienced is due to being trans, although that is alongside the ever-present xenophobia. “If I were biologically male, I’m sure I would have a lot more opportunities despite being a migrant. I can’t even say that I’ll go to the supermarket to carry some sacks of potatoes. People look at me and laugh at me, regardless of whether I can carry them. The issue is that I’m not the person they want me to be.”

No rights, no dignified life

Colombia and Peru are the main destination countries for people fleeing Venezuela in need of international protection, with approximately 1.8 and 1.3 million people respectively, according to the inter-agency platform R4V. For LGBTIQ+ people, who in addition come from historically marginalized groups, these two countries represent an attainable destination.

Both Colombia and Peru have ratified different international treaties that oblige them to guarantee the human rights of all people without discrimination of any kind, including due to nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity. Nevertheless, the entrenched machismo in these societies, the xenophobia, and the violence based on prejudice against sexual and gender diversity create a hostile and unsafe environment.

According to Colombia Diversa, there is significant legal protection in this country for the LGBTIQ+ population, but the greatest barrier lies in its actual implementation, particularly for refugees. For example, although the new migration regularization programme, known as the Temporary Statute of Protection for Venezuelan Migrants, allows trans people to obtain documents that reflect their gender identity, in order to obtain this documentation in practice trans people must go through extra procedures that generate additional costs and therefore limit effective access to this documentation. Fundación Karisma has raised concerns about the elements within the process that threaten “the principles of non-discrimination and inclusion that identification systems must comply with in order to support respect for human rights,” particularly barriers to access to the right to legal recognition of this population.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

In addition, both the experience of LGBTIQ+ people and refugees in Colombia cannot be separated from the armed conflict, especially in border areas where the risk of trafficking and increased violence affect those whose gender expression is diverse and different from conventional binary norms in a differentiated way. Crossing the border via “trochas” (irregular border crossings) is a seemingly better option for many trans people facing the possibility of being mocked or violated at official border crossing points, Caribe Afirmativo warns. They therefore travel without documentation, putting them in situations of greater risk and generating further obstacles in access to regularization.

In Peru, as highlighted in the report by the NGO Presente, the rights of LGBTIQ+ people that are most affected are access to international protection and migration regularization, healthcare, housing and dignified working conditions. Furthermore, in this country equal marriage and the right to legal recognition of trans identity are still pending approval. “If I don’t adapt to this situation in which I find myself, including calling into question my own identity, I will not be able to survive,” says Pía Bravo, director at Presente, in reference to strategies involving hiding one’s diverse identity and gender expression as much as possible in situations of risk or increased discrimination.

A major barrier for Venezuelans in Colombia and Peru is access to healthcare. The social security systems have intrinsic deficiencies in terms of effective and timely access for the national population, which is exacerbated for those who do not have a regular migration status or cannot afford private services. In the case of the Venezuelan LGBTIQ+ population, the most documented barriers coincide with the inability to register in the healthcare system which particularly affects those living with chronic illnesses, including HIV. The denial of this right puts their lives at risk when faced with a lack of timely care.

Alixe, a trans woman refugee in Peru, is proof of this. For her, the barriers are interlinked and range from the costs of procedures for obtaining documentation and registering with the system to direct discrimination from healthcare staff. “For someone like me,” she says, “obtaining these regularization permits is very difficult. It is an odyssey to find work, then obtain the documents and then that document turns out to be useless.” When she finally has access to a medical examination, the shortcomings and stigmatization worsen the experience. Alixe has had HIV tests performed on her without her consent and has received misdiagnoses because doctors have decided not to have physical contact with her.

We have friends with poisoned bodies, people who die of heart attacks because they get blood clots from self-medicating, trans friends who have problems in their uterus due to testosterone use

Alixe

When it comes to hormone treatment, for example, trans migrants do not have adequate medical support. For four years Alixe has not been able to see an endocrinologist and has not been able to check her silicone implants. This is the reason why trans people resort to unsafe processes, she says:  “we have friends with poisoned bodies, people who die of heart attacks because they get blood clots from self-medicating, trans friends who have problems in their uterus due to testosterone use.” In Colombia, Caribe Afirmativo has also confirmed that the obstacles in accessing guided medical treatment for the trans population leads to unsafe and even lethal body transformation procedures.

‘When it is obvious that you are different, everything is more difficult’ 

“It all depends on the way you look,” says Augusto, a 27-year-old non-binary person from Venezuela living in Bogotá, when talking about the way in which an LGBTIQ+ person is treated according to the way they present in public. Gender expression was mentioned by all LGBTIQ+ people consulted as a differentiator in everyday interactions with the local population. This varies from person to person and the gender expression they have chosen to construct. For Alixe, a trans woman in Peru, cisgender lesbian or gay people, including trans men, are less visible socially because their transition is less noticeable and they can live with less stigma initially, although she clarifies that this ends when they have to present an identification document that does not correspond to their gender identity. “Trans people are always accused of usurping someone else’s identity and when they realise that we are trans, that’s when the abuse begins,” says Alixe.

Augusto says that they have not experienced any violence but have experienced discrimination. They know of attacks against trans women and are afraid. When they were younger, as a gay man in Maracaibo, they didn’t think much of it, but since living in Colombia and experimenting with other forms of dress, such as wearing skirts, they never go out unaccompanied.

For Vanessa, a queer non-binary person based in Lima, the way they look and their accent mark the relationships with the people they interact with. They avoided talking in public during the first year in Peru because they didn’t want to be identified as a Venezuelan. Xenophobia can appear at any time, so they are grateful to have built up a circle of trusted feminist friends and colleagues who welcome them.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

People with diverse gender expressions are not the only ones who experience discrimination. Lesbian and gay people, who in many cases are less visible from this perspective, face rejection when looking for housing as same-sex couples or do not have their children recognized as a result of a relationship that is not legal in Venezuela and therefore not in Colombia or Peru either. Similarly, some shelters run by religious institutions are places of revictimization for LGBTIQ+ people, according to the organizations consulted.

After facing multiple barriers to having a dignified life, some trans people decide to stop the process and de-transition, especially while they try to achieve economic stability. “Some trans women have had to go back to masculine gender expression in order to not experience so much violence in terms of migration and social integration. We have cases of people who want to stop their hormone treatment, not because there is no normative protection framework, but because of the amount of violence against them,” explains Giovanni Molinares, researcher at Caribe Afirmativo. This “return to the closet” has also been identified in Peru, as noted in the aforementioned report by the NGO Presente.

Negotiating their public identity in order to overcome situations of risk or discrimination is something that many LGBTIQ+ refugees experience. Marco acknowledges this with pain, “Sometimes I prefer to disrespect myself and say yes, yes, when they see ‘female’ on my documents and look at me strangely, in case they lay a hand on me or take me… I wouldn’t be able to cope with a situation of violence such as those that some of my trans friends have experienced with harassment and police violence. I don’t think I would survive an attack. I am not psychologically prepared to face that.”

Obstacles to reporting

For trans women sex workers, like Priscilla, who has lived in Cúcuta for five years, the violence in this border city exposes her to territorial fights, threats and physical attacks by Colombians and Venezuelans. These disputes leave them in a situation of tremendous vulnerability, where impunity is the norm. “They kill you and no one knows about it and no one heard about it,” she says.

In these cases there is no option to file a report, due to fear of the authorities or simply the fact that dealing with bureaucracy means using time they don’t have. Mistrust in the authorities, especially the police, is based on the different forms of violence that they face, particularly trans women. Although Priscilla believes in the saying “turn a deaf ear to ignorant words”, she admits that the insults hurt her. “Sometimes I try to act tough, but no, when you then start hearing the words, it does affect you mentally a little bit.”

Venezuelans adopt strategies to avoid these encounters in destination countries, including obtaining a regularized migration status, but this is not an absolute guarantee against discrimination or violence. Fear of xenophobia leads them to adopt passive attitudes towards abuses of authority.

Sometimes I try to act tough, but no, when you then start hearing the words, it does affect you mentally a little bit

Priscilla

Augusto grew up believing that it is better to avoid contact with public security forces out of fear of arbitrariness; but even so, in Venezuela they always protested for their rights, but stopped doing so in Colombia. They say that a few weeks ago a police officer stopped them and, after hearing their accent, took their phone from them to check if it was stolen. “They can’t do that, I mean, in Venezuela it is illegal, but what can I do if I am Venezuelan, an immigrant? They took my phone and I didn’t say anything.

Between January 2020 and May 2021, the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office handled cases for 88 Venezuelans with diverse gender identities, including dozens of cases of discrimination against sex workers, police abuse and institutional violence. The report calls for the implementation of a gender perspective in the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office into cases of violence due to prejudice – something that has been lacking so far.

Leaving in search of freedom and a chosen family

Several LGBTIQ+ Venezuelans reported that the discrimination and persecution that they faced in their countries, along with the search for freedom to develop their life plans as diverse people has also driven them to settle in other countries.

Molinares believes that young people leave Venezuela because their partners have already done so or are in the process of doing so and therefore they can free themselves from family pressures. “When they begin to speak out from this place of sexual diversity, they want to leave this closed, often repressive, family circle. The fastest and cheapest option is to go overland to Colombia where they already have a network of people,” he says.

©Fernanda Pineda/Amnesty International

For his part, Marco is aware that Peru is a machista country and that violence due to prejudice against trans people like him is a reality. But despite this, on arriving to Lima he wanted to give himself the opportunity that he never did in Venezuela due to fear. “Here, as I am alone, I’ve had to gather the courage to embrace my gender expression, my orientation and the diversity in me,” he says. Some friends in his country have been brave enough to come out of the closet, but he took this step when fleeing from Venezuela.

Now that he is a father, Marco is thinking about his new family. His partner has a young child, therefore as a father and mother the couple do all that they can to make sure that the child is not exposed to the precarious situation. This has become more difficult since the pandemic that disrupted everything.

The idea of leaving again is on his mind. But returning to Venezuela is never mentioned as an option. When he was a teenager, Marco loved the Argentine singer Gustavo Cerati and is therefore curious about that country, but he thinks that in fact Uruguay would be a “more peaceful” destination. Some friends have told him that the society there is more progressive and tolerant of differences and he knows, now more than ever, that this is an indispensable factor for a dignified life.

The country of his dreams, however, is Iceland. “If I were to move to a very far away country then it would be Iceland. I think that it is small and isolated enough for someone like me.”

Laura Vásquez Roa, the author of this feature, is an anthropologist and independent Colombian journalist who collaborated with Amnesty International for this research.

The post Between invisibility and discrimination: Venezuelan LGBTIQ+ refugees in Colombia and Peru appeared first on Amnesty International.

“The Brazilian authorities must not waste another second in the search for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. We urge President Bolsonaro to deploy every available resource into finding them alive. Every second could prove crucial to bringing them back safely to their loved ones.”

“We also call on the Peruvian and Colombian authorities to urgently deploy search and rescue teams to their respective regions that border the area of Brazil where Dom and Bruno went missing. International cooperation is more vital than ever in crisis situations like this.”

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Amnesty International press office (Amnesty International Americas): press@amnesty.org

Matheus Vieira (Amnesty International Brazil): imprensa@anistia.org.br

The post Brazil: Authorities must not waste another second in search for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira appeared first on Amnesty International.

• The region has accounted for 28% of all COVID-19 deaths in the world, despite having only 8.4% of the global population.
• Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people living in poverty remains 14 million higher compared to 2019.
• Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people living in extreme poverty in LAC has risen by 16 million.
• LAC was the region that experienced the most drastic drop in employment in 2020. Women, young people and people working in the informal sector have been the most impacted.
• Almost 60% of the children who missed an entire school year in the world were in LAC.
• 44 million people became food insecure, of which 21 million became severely food insecure.

COVID-19 Exacerbated by Inequality

• LAC continues to be the world’s most unequal region. In 2019, the richest 20% of the population held almost half of total income, while the poorest 20% held less than 5% of total income.
• The richest 1% in the region holds almost one quarter of total income.
• There is a link between higher levels of income inequality and the impact of the pandemic in terms of lives lost. The most unequal countries in the region (such as Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay) had very high numbers of COVID-19 deaths per million people.
• In 2019, 30% of homes in the region were considered overcrowded. 50% of homes of people living in poverty were overcrowded.
• Less than a third of vulnerable households have access to a computer at home.

Social Protection Responses and Health during COVID-19

• In 2019, only 47.2% of employed persons were affiliated or contributed to pension systems. One in four people aged 65 or over did not receive a pension.
• In most LAC countries, emergency social protection measures adopted covered less than two thirds of the population.
• A total of 64 cash transfer programs were implemented in 24 of 33 countries. However, more than half of the interventions directly benefited less than 10% of the population, and consisted of additional amounts of less than a minimum monthly wage.
• In LAC, 30% of people do not have access to free public health care, due to the lack of health insurance coverage.
• Not one country in the LAC region expanded health insurance or enabled emergency insurance during the pandemic.
• Except from Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay, no other country in the region spends 6% of their GDP in public health, the minimum amount to secure universal healthcare established by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
• Due to the lack of effective access to free and public health, millions of families cover their health expenditures from their savings. Out-of-pocket expenses represent 28% of the total health spending in the region

Taxation and Inequality in LAC

• LAC countries collect less taxes as a percentage of GDP compared to countries with a similar level of development. On average, the region only collects 22% of GDP in taxes, compared to 33% for OECD countries
• In LAC, collection depends heavily on indirect taxes, such as consumption taxes, which disproportionately affect women and other groups who are overrepresented among the poor.
• In 2019, countries in the region collected, on average, 46% of their total tax revenues from indirect taxes, compared to only one third from direct taxes.
• Tax evasion in LAC has led to hundreds of billions of dollars of lost public revenue each year. In 2018, LAC lost approximately US$350 billion, 6.1% of GDP the region’s GDP. This amount would be sufficient to cover the minimum resources to secure universal health in the region.
• LAC countries are estimated to lose annually US$40.1 billion to corporate tax abuse. It is estimated that with the income that has been lost over the last 10 years, the region could have guaranteed access to drinking water to 492,632 people or have prevented the death of 42,281 children.

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