New Video on How to Effectively Investigate LGBTIQ+ Torture

LGBTIQ+ persons face serious human rights violations worldwide solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  

In many countries, discriminatory laws and deeply rooted attitudes often expose LGBTIQ+ persons to violence, including torture and ill-treatment.  

International law is clear that when violence is used against a person for a discriminatory purpose it can amount to torture, provided this violence is severe, intentional, and there is the involvement of a State official. 

Torture against LGBTIQ+ persons can take many forms, including physical and sexual abuse by State officials or non-State actors, forced medical examinations, conversion therapy practices, ‘corrective’ rapes and other forms of harassment. 

Under the UN Convention against Torture, States must investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment. However, torture against LGBTIQ+ persons is often not investigated and goes unpunished. National authorities frequently fail to recognise discriminatory motives, treating such cases as ordinary cases of violence or assault. 

Knowing if the torture was motivated by discrimination is key for LGBTIQ+ victims to access justice and obtain reparations, and to address the root causes of such discriminatory violence. 

A new training video by REDRESS explains how violence against LGBTIQ+ persons can amount to torture, and highlights the steps States must take to investigate effectively such cases.

This video accompanies a briefing paper and a training module on how to investigate torture against LGBTIQ+ persons. 

REDRESS is working in different regions, including in Africa, to bring attention to the torture of LGBTIQ+ people and identify policy and law changes needed to increase access to justice, focusing on the need to investigate such violence and the discriminatory element.   

The video will enhance the current training free resources on our website that seek to help human rights lawyers and anti-torture activists around the world who are challenging torture and ill-treatment wherever it occurs.