Human Rights violations against transgender people : a comparative analysis of the two hate crime cases in Samoa and the Philippines

Abstract

This piece of research seeks to assist the global crisis of hate crime that also affects the Asia Pacific region. It is almost every day, we hear about the killings and murders of LGBTI people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. This leads to the need to carry out more research and analysis to effectively address the issue and not only its iceberg. Over the years there has been work carried out and I would like to acknowledge those efforts, however at the same time we can only learn from the past to frame our future work better. The study aimed to assess the campaign strategies to provide an analysis for better future planning and to aid program development to redress hate crime prevention and to inform program interventions targeting LGBTI people in the Asia Pacific region. In response to the research questions, this qualitative research was carried out to review campaign strategies and activities that were implemented by the two NGOs (two LGBTI organizations focusing on Transgender) from Samoa and the Philippines which were selected as the sample for this study. This research shows the lack of program coordination and cooperation amongst LGBTI organizations. Lack of understanding of hate crime concept, national policies and legislations is also highlighted as key issues in this study. Moreover, it also shows the lack of efforts to address the media from LGBTI perspective which allows gender discrimination and misunderstanding. Therefore, this is the only tool for us to learn from our successes and failures in life to frame better interventions and effective strategies to address civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.