Tool 2: Policing and Gender In many countries discrimination against LGBTI people increases their risk of coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Being thrown out of home and the resultant increased risk of homelessness, for instance, can put people in conflict with the law, as can trauma suffered as a result of sustained and/or intense discrimination and violence.12 They can then suffer the consequences of discriminatory attitudes within juries or among judges. In countries where homosexuality is criminalized, LGBTI persons who are victims of a crime can be reluctant to seek justice. In Lebanon, for instance, while homosexuality is not explicitly outlawed, elements of the Penal Code criminalize same-sex intercourse. This deters LGBTI people from reporting rape for fear of prosecution and incarceration.13 And while people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions have tended to be particularly vulnerable to atrocities committed during armed conflict, transitional justice mechanisms have generally ignored their experiences.14 Integrating a gender perspective is important for the justice sector to protect the rights of LGBTI people, facilitate their access to justice and, ultimately, help reduce violence against them. Intersectionality* Recognizing that men and women, including LGBTI people, are not homogeneous groups, it is necessary for any work on gender and justice to consider how gender intersects with race, class, age, ethnicity, religion, indigeneity, disability and other demographic identifiers in different places and in different times.15 The concept of intersectionality refers to the interaction between two or more forms of discrimination or systems of subordination, such as racism, patriarchy or economic disadvantage. An intersectional analysis often shows that the dynamics of exclusion, inequality and violence are intensified when one or more of these systems of subordination intersect: for instance, when a person is also socio-economically marginalized, a member of an indigenous community or ethnic minority group, displaced, LGBTI, has disabilities and/ or is an orphan. 2.4 Laws are often discriminatory and/or applied in a discriminatory manner Many countries maintain discriminatory laws concerning GBV, domestic violence, land ownership, marriage, child custody, inheritance, employment and sexual orientation. The following is but a selection of examples. Ê GBV laws commonly exclude certain victims. For example, in some countries laws concerning rape only recognize that females can be raped, only recognize males as perpetrators, do not recognize rape within marriage and/or do not recognize same-sex rape. Others have a long list of mitigating circumstances for rape (e.g. where it might be considered a “crime of passion”). Ê In certain countries domestic violence and intimate-partner violence as forms of GBV are not criminalized. Ê Many forms of GBV are not effectively criminalized in law and practice, including transphobic and homophobic violence and online abuse (see case study 1). Ê Where a law is not overtly discriminatory, “neutral” application of the law can have discriminatory effects on women. For instance, in Cameroon, statutory land tenure legislation appears gender neutral but has gendered effects. The patriarchal system of inheritance means that the law leaves women vulnerable to being dispossessed of their land by family members when their spouse dies.16 * Intersectionality is discussed in more detail in Tool 1, and conducting intersectional gender analysis is discussed in Tool 15. 11