Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project reveals more than 1,100 reported murders of trans people i

Transgender Europe: Press Release: March 12 2013

Constant rise in murder rates: Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder
Monitoring project reveals more than 1,100 reported murders of trans
people in the last five years

The Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project started in April 2009 and
systematically monitors, collects and analyses reports of homicides
of trans people worldwide. Updates of the results are published two
to three times a year on the website of the “Transrespect versus
Transphobia Worldwide” project in the form of tables, name lists,
and maps:

http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results.htm

The March 2013 update reveals a total of 1,123 reported killings of
trans people in 57 countries worldwide from January 1st 2008 to
December 31st 2012. The update shows a significant/constant increase
in reported killings of trans people over the last five years. In
2008, 148 cases were reported, in 2009 217 cases, in 2010 229 cases,
in 2011 262 cases, and in 2012 267 cases. It is important to note
that these cases are those that could be found through Internet
research and through cooperation with trans organizations and
activists. In most countries, data on murdered trans people are not
systematically produced and it is impossible to estimate the numbers
of unreported cases.

The increase suggests that on the one hand TGEU’s TVT research team
has improved its monitoring methods, and received information from
activists from many parts of the world. On the other it suggests
that an increase in the visibility of trans people and of trans
issues in public discourse may have led to a better reporting of
cases. Clearly the shocking amount of violence against trans people
still poses a major problem and threat to trans people in many
countries. The alarming figures demonstrate once more that there is
an urgent need to react to the violence against trans people and to
seek mechanisms to protect trans people. Some international trans
activists even started to introduce the term ‘transcide’ to reflect
the continuously elevated level of deadly violence against trans
people on a global scale.

Cases have been reported from all major World Regions (Africa, Asia,
Central and South America, Europe, North America, and Oceania),
evoking an evermore gruesome picture, especially given the very
partial knowledge we are able to gain in many places. More detailed
information and a map showing the 1,123 reported murders of trans
people is available at:

www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en/tvt-project/tmm-results/march-2013.htm

Throughout all six world regions, the highest absolute numbers have
been found in countries with strong trans movements and trans or
LGBT organizations that do a professional monitoring: Brazil (452),
Mexico (106), and Colombia (65) in Central and South America, the
USA (69) in North America, Turkey (30) in Europe, and The
Philippines (28) in Asia.

The close connection between the existence of strong trans movements
and professional monitoring on the one hand, and highest absolute
numbers of reports, on the other hand, point to a worrisome
question: the question of unreported cases. Beside the need for
mechanisms to protect trans people, this connection also shows the
need for strong trans communities and organizations, which are
capable of professional monitoring and reporting of violence against
trans people. Furthermore this connection results in the fact, that
the figures show only the tip of the iceberg of homicides of trans
people on a worldwide scale.

Most reported cases were from Central and South America, which
amount to 864 reports in 22 countries and account for 77 % of the
globally reported murders of trans people since January 2008. In
this region, there has been the strongest increase in reports (2008:
94, 2009: 165, 2010: 181, 2011: 206, and 2012: 218). In Brazil, the
country with most reported killings (452 in total), there has been a
steady increase (2008: 57, 2009: 68, 2010: 99, 2011: 103, 2012:
125). In Mexico, 106 cases have been reported in total, showing an
even stronger increase each year (2008: 4, 2009: 9, 2010: 14, 2011:
33, 2012: 46). In Colombia, 65 killings have been reported in total
since 2008 (2008: 13, 2009: 13, 2010: 15, 2011: 18, 2012: 6).

Killings of trans people in the region have also been reported from
Argentina (19), Bolivia (9), Chile (4), Costa Rica (4), Cuba (2),
Dominican Republic (14), Ecuador (11), Guatemala (36), Honduras
(41), El Salvador (7), Jamaica (1), Nicaragua (4), Panama (2),
Paraguay (5), Peru (11), Puerto Rico (9), and Uruguay (8), and
Venezuela (54). Reports from some countries with smaller population
sizes are also extremely worrying. While Brazil, Mexico, and
Colombia have the highest absolute numbers, the relative numbers
show even more worrisome results for some countries with smaller
population sizes. Honduras, for instance, has a rate of 5.12
reported trans killings per million inhabitants, for Guatemala the
rate is 2.83, and for Puerto Rico the rate is 2.43, while for Brazil
the rate is 2.35, for Colombia the rate is 1.41, and for Mexico the
rate is 0.94.

Thus, seen in relative numbers the situation in Honduras, Guatemala
and Puerto Rico is even more severe than the one in Brazil, Mexico,
or Colombia.

The new result update moreover reveals that in the last five years:

105 killings of trans people have been reported in Asia (2008: 17,
2009: 17, 2010: 29, 2011: 25, 2012: 17), in 15 countries
(Afghanistan: 1, Azerbaijan: 2, Bangladesh: 1, Cambodia: 1, China:
6, India: 24, Indonesia: 7, Iran: 1, Iraq: 3, Malaysia: 6, Pakistan:
19, Philippines: 28, Republic of Korea: 1, Singapore: 1, and
Thailand: 4);

71 killings of trans people have been reported in Europe (2008: 13,
2009: 20, 2010: 10, 2011: 14, 2012: 14), in 11 countries (Albania:
1, France: 2, Germany: 2, Italy: 20, Poland: 1, Portugal: 1, Russia:
2, Serbia: 1, Spain: 6, Turkey: 30, and UK: 5);

71 killings of trans people have been reported in North America
(2008: 19, 2009: 13, 2010: 9, 2011: 16, 2012: 14), in 2 countries
(Canada: 2, USA: 69);

8 killings of trans people have been reported in Africa (2008: 2,
2009: 1, 2010: 0, 2011: 1, 2012: 4), in 4 countries (Algeria: 1,
Mauritius: 1, Uganda: 1, South Africa: 5);

4 killings of trans people have been reported in Oceania (2008: 3,
2009: 1, 2010: 0, 2011: 0, 2012: 0), in 4 countries (Australia: 1,
Fiji: 1, New Caledonia: 1, and New Zealand: 1).

Attached to this press release you can find a map, which
demonstrates the absolute figures of reports found worldwide since
January 2008.

While the documentation of killings of trans people is indispensable
for demonstrating the shocking extent of human rights violations
committed against trans people on a global scale, there is also a
need for in-depth research of various other aspects related to the
human rights situation of trans people. Therefore, Transgender
Europe developed the Trans Murder Monitoring project into the
‘Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide’ research project (TvT).
TvT is a comparative, ongoing qualitative-quantitative research
project, which provides an overview of the human rights situation of
trans people in different parts of the world and develops useful
data and advocacy tools for international institutions, human rights
organizations, the trans movement and the general public. In
November 2012 Transgender Europe published the TvT research report
“TRANSRESPECT VERSUS TRANSPHOBIA WORLDWIDE – A Comparative Review of
the Human-rights Situation of Gender-variant/Trans People”, which
discusses and contextualizes the key findings of the TvT project.
You can download the research report here:

http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/Publications/TvT_research-report.pdf

If you have further questions or if you want to support the research
project, please contact

Transgender Europe’s Senior Researcher Dr Carsten Balzer

research[at]transrespect-transphobia.org
www.transrespect-transphobia.org

If you want to support the “Transrespect versus Transphobia
Worldwide” project, you can also contribute with a donation to
Transgender Europe (details below).

Please enter “TvT project” as reference of the payment.

Account Holder: Transgender Europe

Bank account: BAWAG P.S.K., Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna,
Austria,
BIC/SWIFT: OPSKATWW
IBAN: AT41 6000 0190 1000 1504
Reference of payment: TvT project