Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR): Vicky Hernández et al. v. Honduras
| Vicky Hernández et al. v. Honduras: A Landmark Victory with a Bitter Aftertaste |
| On June 28, on International LGBT Pride Day, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued its ruling in Vicky Hernández et al. v. Honduras, the first case involving lethal violence against an LGBT person, specifically a trans woman, to reach the highest body of the Inter-American regional system. During the proceedings, Honduras denied that its police force had any part in Vicky Hernández’s murder, which occurred on another June 28, this time in 2009, on the first night of the curfew imposed during the coup d’état against then-president Manuel Zelaya. The decision sparked considerable anticipation: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and representatives of Hernández’s family had requested the IACtHR to apply the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (“Convention of Belém do Pará”) to the case. Previously the treaty had only been applied to instances of violence against cisgender women. Furthermore, the petition was submitted to the IACHR in 2012, before Advisory Opinion OC-24/17 had been issued. Quite a lot, therefore, was at stake.Read the post |
International and Comparative SOGIESC Law - Professor Andreas R Ziegler 