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By María Sanz, from Asunción

The organization Panambí, which defends the rights of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender people in Paraguay, opened this week its center for receiving complaints of cases of violence and discrimination against trans people.

This is a telephone hotline (0983 321006) that will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., receiving calls, text messages, and WhatsApp messages. A trained trans activist will answer the phone to provide support and information, register the complaint, offer legal advice to formalize the complaint, and provide accompaniment, follow-up, and monitoring of the case.

[READ ALSO: #HateCrimes2017: More than 400 reports of violence against LGBT people in Paraguay]

Furthermore, the records will provide statistics and data to be published in annual reports on the situation of transgender people in Paraguay. These figures will be used as a tool for political advocacy to encourage the State to create protection mechanisms, improve its response to these cases, and prevent impunity.

The complaints center is part of the network of the Center for Documentation and Trans Situation of Latin America and the Caribbean (CeDoSTALC), a system for collecting information, monitoring and responding to the barriers related to the human rights suffered by the trans population in the region, and which is promoted by the Network of trans people of Latin America and the Caribbean (Redlactrans).

Sex work and the police

Complaints can refer to any type of violence, discrimination, abuse or violation of rights, whether perpetrated by private individuals, state forces or representatives, explained Mariana Sepúlveda, one of the Panambí activists who will be staffing the hotline, at a press conference.

Sepúlveda added that many of these cases of violence occur "on the street, while the women are engaged in sex work," and in many situations "it is the police who violate" their rights.

Thus, it is very difficult to file a complaint at the police station, since afterwards the complainant returns to work on the street, and may encounter the same police officer who assaulted her, or his colleagues, and suffer some kind of retaliation, explained Yren Rotela, human rights defender and representative of Panambí.

Therefore, the Panambí complaints center offers a safe alternative to filing a report at a police station. It also aims to serve as a bridge between victims and the State, through agreements with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Judiciary, and the Ministry of the Interior.

More than 30 reports of violence so far this year

So far in 2018, Panambí has ​​received more than 30 reports of violence or discrimination against trans people, while in 2017 they received more than 50. But they warn that around 70% of cases of violence against trans people go unreported.

“This is what criminologists call 'the hidden figure,'” explained lawyer Diego Molinas, legal advisor for Panambí. “We have an underreporting of complaints: they are just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, since the State does not disaggregate data on violence by gender, there are no official figures,” he added.

According to Rotela, in many cases reports go unreported because transvestites and transgender people are unaware of the procedures they should follow, or because they normalize the different types of violence they suffer. For this reason, she encouraged anyone who witnesses an act of violence against a transgender person to report it, in order to “stop being complicit.”

[READ ALSO: “In Paraguay, healthcare for transvestites is clandestine”]

The launch of the reporting center will be accompanied by an awareness campaign about violence against transvestites and transgender people, which seeks to achieve greater visibility of these cases and better support from the State, Rotela said. As part of the campaign, trans activists will distribute information packets with the center's contact information and the phone number for reporting, 0983 321 006, to their peers.

The telephone counseling service joins two other similar civil society initiatives that also receive reports of discrimination and violence against LGBTI people: the Rohendu service (“I hear you,” in Guarani), managed by Aireana – Group for Lesbian Rights, and the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Complaints Center. Between them, these two organizations recorded a total of 421 complaints throughout 2017.

Nearly 60 unpunished murders

Since the end of the Stroessner dictatorship in 1989, a total of 59 murders of transvestites and transgender people have been recorded in Paraguay. Seventy percent of these crimes occurred in areas where the victims engaged in sex work. Most of these cases remain unpunished or uninvestigated, according to the report "Forgotten Even in Death," prepared by Panambí.

The most recent case was the murder of 28-year-old Romina Vargas in October 2017, for which the perpetrator was charged and admitted to committing the crime "out of hate." Panambí is demanding that this case be brought to trial to end the impunity surrounding the murders of transvestites and transgender people in Paraguay.

“We ask for nothing more than justice,” Rotela declared. She also recalled that Law 5.777, the Comprehensive Protection of Women Against All Forms of Violence Act, passed in 2016, excludes transgender women from accessing this protection, after legislators removed the word “gender” from the entire text of the law.