Summary: Inter-American Commission declares admissible case of gay man tortured by police in Peru

25 November 2014: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has ruled that the case of a young gay man who was tortured by police in Perú is admissible, allowing the case to be examined on merit. Luis Alberto Rojas was stripped, robbed, and raped with a truncheon by police officers in 2008 in the city of Trujillo, where he had been detained arbitrarily, allegedly due to his sexuality. Mr Rojas complained about the abuse he suffered, but the Peruvian legal system closed the case.

Mr Rojas believes that the Peruvian government violated his most fundamental rights, including the right to personal integrity, personal liberty, equality before the law, and protection of honour and dignity, all of which are enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture. SRT grantee Redress brought his case to the Inter-American Commission along with two Peruvian partner organisations, after exhausting all avenues for justice in Perú. Perú had argued that the case was not admissible, but the organisations submitted arguments to show why this was not true.

In 2012, following a report submitted by REDRESS and its partners to the UN Committee Against Torture, the Committee urged Peru to take “effective measures to protect the LGBT community from attacks, abuse and arbitrary detention and ensure that all acts of violence are promptly, effectively and impartially investigated and prosecuted, perpetrators brought to justice and victims provided with redress.”

Commenting on the admission of his case, Mr Rojas said: “It has filled me with hope of finding the truth and obtaining justice six years after the events.”

Full press release from REDRESS: http://www.redress.org/downloads/luis-alberto-rojas-press-release281114.pdf