RISK FACTORS AND SITUATIONS as LGBTI should if possible be given the choice of being searched by a male or female officer. Transsexual detainees may not be recognised in accordance with their new identity and therefore searched by male staff even though they perceive themselves as female detainees (or vice-versa). Monitors could encourage detaining authorities to develop a specific policy50 for searching LGBTI detainees. Such policies should not only relate to the gender of the officer in charge, but sensitise all staff and provide additional safeguards. In South Africa, the Police Services of Cape Town together with Gender Dynamix,51 a local NGO providing help, advice and information for transgender people, developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to ensure the safety of transgender people who are in conflict with the law. One of the main aspects of these procedures relates to searches, and establishes that ‘if a trans- person is carrying an Identity Document that reflects her/his gender then that trans-person can demand to be searched by a police [officer] of the same gender, regardless of lack of genital surgery’. According to the French General Inspector of places of deprivation of liberty, ‘as soon as the [sex reassignment] treatment has started, searches should be conducted with particular caution in order to guarantee that the dignity of the person is respected. Whenever the irreversibility of the gender reassignment process has been medically established by a multidisciplinary in charge of the person concerned, searches should be undertaken in conditions preserving the dignity of the team detainee as well as the staff, by officers of the same sex as the reassigned sex, without waiting for a change of the civil status. Such searches should be undertaken by officers made sensitive to the issue by the prison’s management’. 5. Violence amongst detainees The experience of being deprived of one’s liberty is harsh for any detainee, but LGBTI persons are more exposed to violence from fellow detainees. As the Special Rapporteur on Torture encapsulated well:52 ‘Within detention facilities, there is usually a strict hierarchy, and those at the bottom of this hierarchy, such as children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and diseases, gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gender persons, suffer double or triple discrimination.’ The risk of sexual abuse as a form of inter-prisoner violence is particularly high for LGBTI prisoners. The Subcommittee for Prevention of Torture, for example, reports having received ‘reports of, among other things, beatings, sexual assault, confinement and targeted forms of violence, including the so-called corrective rape of lesbian women, and the intentional beatings of the breasts and cheekbones of transgender women to burst implants and release toxins’.53 According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 3.5 per cent of men who identified themselves as heterosexual had been sexually abused by another inmate, compared to 34 per cent of bisexual men, and 39 per cent of gay men.54 To prevent sexual abuse by co-detainees, a thorough assessment should be conducted for all inmates to ascertain their risk of either being victimised or a danger to others. Attitudes of fellow detainees and staff may differ significantly depending on gender. For example, a study conducted in Costa Rica by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has observed that in women’s prisons where lesbian couples are formed, sexual diversity is more visible; it is tolerated (although not accepted by the detaining authorities); and gender identities are less questioned. In facilities for men, there are almost no gay couples (except in some cases where a transgender detainee is in a relationship with a male detainee) and the majority of detainees feel that their virility is questioned by homosexual relationships. In this situation, there is an increase of homophobia and transphobia compared to outside prisons, and instances of sex are often characterised by violence. 55 It is common in many contexts that LGBTI detainees or those perceived as belonging to a sexual minority, are detained together, in the same cell, or the same unit. In such cases, the cells or units may be in worse physical condition than those located in other premises within the same detention facility. Sometimes LGBTI detainees will be housed together with other detainees considered to be at the very bottom of the hierarchy, and frequently on supposedly protective grounds. For example, in the main detention facility in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, ‘prison outcasts’ are detained together with LGBTI detainees held in the same unit as persons living with mental illnesses. Given the fear of reprisals if they denounce such acts of violence to the authorities, detainees should also be given the option of confidentiality when reporting sexual abuse in prisons through both an internal and external complaints procedure. Inmates who are victims of sexual abuse should receive timely medical treatment and counselling. 50. See, for example, the Correctional Service of Canada’s Directive on searching inmates, which includes a protocol for searching transgender inmates (with the possibility of choosing between male and female officers carrying out the search, or a combination of both depending on the part of the body searched). Available at: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/politiques-et-lois/566-7-cd-eng.shtml#s9 <accessed 20 November 2015>. 51. See Know your rights: changes to SAPS Standard Operating Procedures, 15 March 2013. Available at: http://www.genderdynamix.org.za/know-yourrights-changes-to-saps-standard-operating-procedures/ <accessed 20 November 2015>. 52. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture to the UN Human Rights Council, Study on the phenomena of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the world, including an assessment of conditions of detention, 5 February 2010, A/HRC/13/39/Add.5, para.231. 53. Eighth annual report of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 26 March 2015, para. 67. 54. Kaiser D and Stannow L, Prison rape: Obama’s program to stop it, 11 October 2012. 55. UNAIDS/UNODC, Diversidad Sexual, Derechos Humanos y VIH en el Sistema Penitenciario de Costa Rica, 2012, pp42-45. 10 | Penal Reform International | LGBTI persons deprived of their liberty: a framework for preventive monitoring