Inter-American Court of Human Rights convicts Honduras for killing a Transgender Woman.

On 28th June 2021, the IACHR condemned the State of Honduras for breaching out the right to life of Vicky Hernandez, a militant transgender sex worker who was murdered by state officials during the coup d’État that hit the central-American country in 2009 when she was only 26 years old.  This sentence is the first to determine the responsibility of a sovereign state for the assassination of a transgender person. The judges highlighted the atmosphere of severe hostility that still exists in Honduras since the death of Vicky, and stresses the clear evidence of involvement of government officials in her death. They stated that security forces in the country usually deployed to harass monitory groups, such as the LGBT community, under the justification of defence of the public order. According to the database of Cattrachas, one of the LGBT organizations that moved forward Vicky’s case until it achieved the Court in 2019, roughly 122 transgender and 389 gay people were killed in Honduras so far. The State of Honduras acknowledged its failure in conducting a prompt and thorough investigation regarding Vicky’s case. The judges added this lack of a proper investigation for her murder was motivated by the deep discrimination against LGBT people in the government’s agencies and organs in Honduras. For further information, please visit (In Portuguese): https://brasil.elpais.com/internacional/2021-06-29/corte-interamericana-condena-honduras-por-morte-de-mulher-trans.html