Reports

The Need for Legal Gender Recognition in Tabasco, Mexico

The 60-page report, “‘I Just Want to Contribute to Society’: The Need for Legal Gender Recognition in Tabasco, Mexico,” documents the pervasive socioeconomic disadvantages that trans people experience due to a mismatch between their gender and their identity documents. A lack of accurate documents, often in combination with anti-trans bias, has led to discrimination, harassment, and violence for trans people.

a portrait of Sandra R., a transgender woman, with two family members

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  • December 15, 2014

    Violence and Harassment against LGBT People and Activists in Russia

    This 85-page report is based on dozens of detailed interviews with LGBT people and activists in 16 cities across Russia who experienced attacks or aggressive harassment because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • October 21, 2014

    Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in Jamaica

    This 86-page report documents 56 cases of violence in which victims reported they were targeted because of their actual or perceived sexual identity. Human Rights Watch found that police investigations are often inadequate or lacking altogether, in some cases due to homophobia within the police force. Discriminatory laws contribute to the specific vulnerability of LGBT people.

  • January 28, 2014

    Police Violence Against Gay and Bisexual Men in Kyrgyzstan

    This 65-page report found that gay and bisexual men have been subjected to a range of abuses at the hands of police in Kyrgyzstan, including physical, sexual, and psychological violence; arbitrary detention; and extortion under the threat of violence or of exposing victims’ sexual orientation to friends and family.
  • June 26, 2013

    Ill-treatment and Torture of Vulnerable Groups in Lebanese Police Stations

    This 66-page report focuses on torture and ill-treatment by the Internal Security Forces (ISF), particularly the Drug Repression Bureau and members of the ISF who enforce “morality-related” laws against drug users, sex workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

  • June 18, 2013

    Discrimination against Sex Workers, Sexual and Gender Minorities, and People Who Use Drugs in Tanzania

    This 98-page report documents abuses including torture, rape, assault, arbitrary arrest, and extortion. The organizations found that the fear of abuse is driving sex workers, people who use drugs, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people away from prevention and treatment services.

  • March 21, 2013

    Human Rights Violations in the Enforcement of Cameroon’s Anti-Homosexuality Law

    The 55-page report presents 10 case studies of arrests and prosecutions under article 347 bis of Cameroon’s penal code, which punishes “sexual relations between persons of the same sex” with up to five years in prison. The report found that most people charged with homosexuality are convicted based on little or no evidence.
  • August 21, 2012

    Intimidation and Obstruction of Civil Society in Uganda

    This 50-page report documents increasing government attacks on organizations whose focus includes oil revenue transparency, land acquisition compensation, legal and governance reform, and protection of human rights, particularly the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
  • July 19, 2012

    Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution in Four US Cities

    This 112-page report documented in each city how police and prosecutors use condoms to support prostitution charges. The practice makes sex workers and transgender women reluctant to carry condoms for fear of arrest, causes them to engage in sex without protection, and puts them at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

  • January 15, 2012

    Discrimination and Police Violence Against Transgender Women in Kuwait

    This 63-page report documents the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and persecution that transgender women – individuals who are born male, but identify as female – have faced at the hands of police.
  • December 5, 2011

    Violence and Discrimination against Black Lesbians and Transgender Men in South Africa

    This 93-page report is based on more than 120 interviews conducted in six provinces. Human Rights Watch found that lesbians and transgender men face extensive discrimination and violence in their daily lives, both from private individuals and government officials.
  • September 13, 2011

    Human Rights Violations against Trans People in the Netherlands

    This report documents the impact of a 1985 law, article 28 of the civil code, on the daily life of transgender people. The requirements violate transgender people’s rights to personal autonomy and physical integrity and deny them the ability to define their own gender identity.
  • March 9, 2011

    State Response to HIV in Mississippi

    This 59-page report documents the harmful impact of Mississippi's policies on state residents, including people living with HIV and those at high risk of contracting it. Mississippi refuses to provide complete, accurate information about HIV prevention to students and threatens criminal penalties for failing to disclose one's HIV status to sexual partners.