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| Rasha Moumneh, researcher for the Middle East and North Africa Human Rights Watch (HRW), speaks during a press conference in Kuwait City on Sunday, where HRW accused Kuwaiti police of torturing and sexually abusing transgender women and called on the Gulf state to hold officers accountable. (AFP Photo) |
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Kuwait
City. Human Rights Watch on Sunday accused Kuwaiti police of torturing and
sexually abusing transgender women and called on the Gulf state to hold
officers accountable.
In a
report, the New York-based group said that police have been using a “discriminatory”
amendment to the penal code passed by parliament in 2007 which arbitrarily
criminalizes “imitating the opposite sex.”
Transgender
women are individuals who are born male but identify themselves as female.
The
arbitrary and ill-defined provisions of the law have allowed numerous abuses to
take place against them, said the 63-page report based on interviews with 40
transgender women, as well as with interior ministry officials, lawyers,
doctors, and members of civil society.
The
accusations were based on the accounts of the 40 victims “all of whom gave
almost a similar story on what they faced,” Rasha Moumneh, HRW’s Middle East
and North Africa researcher, told a press conference in Kuwait City.
“We have
met with officials from the interior ministry ... and presented the findings to
them but have not yet received any response,” Moumneh said, adding that Human
Rights Watch does not know the exact number of transgender women in Kuwait.
Kuwaiti
police have a free rein to determine whether a person’s appearance constitutes
“imitating the opposite sex,” without any specific criteria being laid down for
the offence, the report said.
Transgender
women reported being arrested even when they were wearing male clothes and then
later being forced by police to dress in women’s clothing.
In some
cases documented by Human Rights Watch, transgender women said police arrested
them because they had a “soft voice” or “smooth skin.”
“No one —
regardless of his or her gender identity — deserves to be arrested on the basis
of a vague, arbitrary law and then abused and tortured by police,” Sarah Leah
Whitson, HRW’s Middle East director, said in a statement.
“The
Kuwaiti government has a duty to protect all of its residents, including groups
who face popular disapproval, from brutal police behavior and the application
of an unfair law,” the statement said.
Abuses
include degrading and humiliating treatment, such as being forced to strip and
paraded around police stations, being forced to dance for officers, sexual
humiliation, verbal taunts and intimidation, HRW said.
“In several
cases, Human Rights Watch found that police officers took advantage of the law
to blackmail transgender women into sex,” the report said.
Redress for
these violations was difficult for fear of retribution and re-arrest, said the
rights watchdog.
“HRW calls
on the Kuwaiti government to repeal the amendment to article 198, criminalizing
imitating the opposite sex,” the report said.
Pending
repeal of the law, the interior ministry should issue a moratorium on arrests
of individuals and the government also should work to protect transgender
individuals, it said.
Agence France-Presse
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Equality now!
The Jakarta Post | Sat, 12/03/2011
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A group of participants march in front of their gay pride flag during the annual
Pride March in Manila, Philippines, Saturday. Lesbians, gays, bisexual and
transgenders called for the urgent need to pass the anti-discrimination bill
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(AP/Pat Roque)
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