ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012
ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012
ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012
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Violence and safety beyond the law<br />
The report that follows is a compilation of laws criminalizing same sex activities amongst<br />
consenting adults, which, unfortunately, are still in place in 78 countries in the world. We are<br />
mindful, however, that even in those countries where some kind of protection is provided,<br />
violence is still a major plague in the daily lives of many LGBTI people. The case study below<br />
aims at raising awareness of the issue of safety of LGBTI people in Brazil. Although Brazil<br />
benefits from some kind of positive legislation for LGBTI people, the reality shows that<br />
violence, and too often murders, still prevail. Unfortunately, this situation of violence against<br />
LGBTI is common in many of those countries that do not criminalize homosexuality and<br />
therefore that do not appear in the report.<br />
We are hoping this new addition to the report will become a regular feature in editions to<br />
come and this year we would like to thank Sonia Correa, Irina Bacci, Roger Raupp and<br />
Eduardo Piza de Mello for their outstanding contribution.<br />
<strong>Homophobia</strong> and impunity in Brazil<br />
by Irina Bacci, Secretary General of the Brazilian Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual,<br />
Transvestites and transsexuals (ABGLT)<br />
Sonia Onufer Corrêa, co-chair of Sexuality Policy Watch,<br />
Eduardo Piza Gomes de Mello, Lawyer, Specialist in Public Law and<br />
director of Gadvs – Group of Lawyers for Sexual Diversity of São Paulo,<br />
Roger Raupp Rios, Doctor in Law (UFRGS) and Federal Judge in Porto Alegre.<br />
University Teacher (UniRitter),<br />
Brazil is today the sixth world economy, having surpassed developed countries like Great<br />
Britain. There are also projections that the economy will overtake France in mid-2015,<br />
according to studies by the International Monetary Fund and the West L.B.<br />
A country that less than 15 years ago needed financial help from the International Monetary<br />
Fund to pay its foreign debt, currently lends money to the same institution. The country's<br />
economic development has led many of its companies to build great infrastructures in<br />
various countries of Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.<br />
This positive picture sees also the appearance of a new social class emerged in Brazil as a<br />
result of the redistributive social policies by the Lula government in the last eight years. But this<br />
reality is not effective enough to promote the improvement of the living conditions of the<br />
Brazilian people.<br />
The Human Development Report 2011, released in November last year (2011) by the United<br />
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranks Brazil in the 84th position among the 187<br />
countries assessed by the index. The index is used as a benchmark of quality of life and<br />
development without relying solely on economic indexes.<br />
Consequently, it can be used also in relation to human rights violations in Brazil, which<br />
currently affect thousands of landless rural workers, indigenous peoples, women victims of<br />
violence because of gender differences and the violation of their reproductive rights, the<br />
discrimination against the black population which represents half of the population and<br />
many other marginalized and under-assisted social groups .<br />
<strong>State</strong>-<strong>Sponsored</strong> <strong>Homophobia</strong> – May <strong>2012</strong><br />
<strong>ILGA</strong> – The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - www.ilga.org<br />
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