LGBT persons in detention: risk situations and factors Once deprived of their liberty, LGBT persons become more exposed to ill-treatment. Some specific risk situations for this particular population have been identified. Participants especially highlighted issues related to violence among detainees and the practice of separating LGBT persons in prisons, or even placing them in solitary confinement. Also discussed was the lack of training and knowledge of prison staff and the institutional culture that sometimes leads the staff to adopt hostile behaviour towards LGBT detainees. Finally, some situations involving transgender persons were discussed specifically and are dealt with separately in a sub-chapter later in this report. Violence amongst detainees A person whose sexual orientation or gender identity is different from what is expected in a heteronormative social context runs a greater risk of abuse and violence at the hands of fellow detainees. Indeed, participants agreed that LGBT detainees find themselves at the bottom of an informal hierarchy that often exists within prisons. Kyrgyzstan: the “untouchables” In many countries of the former USSR, distinct, informal hierarchy systems exist in prisons. In such systems, inmates identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender are rejected and excluded by other prisoners and treated as total outcasts. Those relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy are called the “untouchables”. In Kyrgyzstan, the strong climate of homophobia and transphobia that exists in society, and particularly in prisons, has a direct impact on the work of the NPM. The stigmatisation of this category of prisoners is so strong that the men working for the Kyrgyz NPM risk being discredited in the eyes of other inmates and the authorities by simply conducting interviews with LGBT persons. 13