Peru on Nov. 3 issued an official apology to Azul Rojas Marín, a transgender woman who was raped and beaten by a group of police officers in 2008. 

After an Inter-American Court on Human Rights’ ruling in 2020, Peru was compelled to formally recognize its culpability in Rojas’ abuse. Despite this historic event, Peru is still far from fulfilling all of its obligations under the decision.

More than 14 years have passed between the incident and the apology ceremony that took place at Peru’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. Illustrating this long journey towards retribution, Rojas lit a candle in front of a photo of her mother, who passed away before she was able to witness her daughter achieve justice. 

On Feb. 25, 2008, when she was 26, Rojas was walking home alone. She alleges it was then that a group of police officers searched her, beat her and shouted obscenities. After bringing her to the police station in Casa Grande, she was then stripped and sodomized. 

Rojas initially tried to utilize Peru’s legal system to report her crime, but prosecutors dropped the case shortly after they began to investigate it. And even though she appealed the prosecutor’s decision, a Peruvian court dismissed her appeal in January 2009. So Rojas, supported by Promsex, an LGBTQ and intersex human rights organization based in Lima, took her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 

Four years ago, in 2018, the commission agreed to hear the case, and two years after that, the court released a ruling. On March 12, 2020, the Peruvian state was found guilty of having violated Rojas’ rights. This verdict mandated the Peruvian state to satisfy a list of reparations that included a public apology ceremony for Rojas.

According to political scientist José Alejandro Godoy, last week’s ceremony is unprecedented and is the first time the Peruvian state has apologized for a homophobic or transphobic act. 

Godoy told the Washington Blade the ceremony is “a very positive sign [of progress in Peru,] even though it would have been preferable for this to have taken place spontaneously and not by virtue of a court ordering.”

Elida Guerra, a consultant and researcher of international human rights law, works for Promsex’s litigation team. She is more balanced in her response as to whether this ceremony is a harbinger Guerra recognizes the apology ceremony as important in that it acknowledges the violations committed against Rojas. However, she tells the Blade that Peru is far from affording equal rights to its LGBTQ and intersex citizens.

“It must be noted that in Peru there is no regulatory framework for the protection of LGBTI people,” said Guerra. “If we want a significant change with respect to human rights, we need to start making visible actions which protect and guarantee their rights. In this sense, the Peruvian state still has a long way to go.”

Indeed, Peru is one of the few countries in South America which does not provide any legal recognition to same-sex couples. And according to the Williams Institute, “public policies protecting the rights of transgender people are almost non-existent.” 

Although trans Peruvians can go to the judiciary to change their name and gender, the process is cumbersome and expensive. With a conservative mayor in Lima set to take office in January, and an embattled, unsympathetic president, the hope for progress coming from Peruvian institutions is bleak. 

Many LGBTQ and intersex activists in Peru are therefore finding hope in international courts like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights  as institutions capable of safeguarding their rights. Godoy even believes entities like the court could end up forcing Peru to “expressly recognize same-sex marriage.”

Guerra also believes the court can help achieve human rights victories but posits that this mechanism is not a panacea for achieving rights.

“We still have challenges such as the procedural delay, the delay in their response, and the effective implementation of the reparations of the sentences,” said Guerra.

In Rojas’ case, these delays are apparent. 

Last week’s ceremony had an original deadline which passed months ago. Further, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ 2020 ruling includes many other reparation measures which the Peruvian state has yet to carry out. 

The court ordered Peru to “provide medical, psychological and/or psychiatric treatment” to Rojas and to prosecute the officers who tortured her. Neither has happened. The ruling also directs Peru to track anti-LGBTQ violence in the country and develop a national strategy to respond to it.

Despite the slow pace of implementation, Peru’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights does appear to be working on carrying out at least some of these reparations. 

“I met with my team to redouble all efforts, so that, from [the Ministry of] Justice and Human Rights, we can promote, manage and coordinate the corresponding reparations,” said Justice and Human Rights Minister Félix Chero Medina at last week’s ceremony.

At the apology ceremony, his ministry announced the formation of “a technical team to … investigate and administer justice during criminal proceedings for cases of LGTBI+ people.” 

Chero’s new team is perhaps a welcome development to LGBTQ and intersex Peruvians who are still waiting for their time in court. 

Guerra tells the Blade of many cases of queer and trans Peruvians who are victims of multiple human rights violations but who have not been able to obtain justice domestically.

Enrique Vega-Dávila, a queer pastor and academic, echoes Guerra’s claim of many LGBTQ and intersex Peruvians in search of justice.

“There are lesbians who have suffered corrective rape,” Vega-Dávila said. “Also the bullying of LGBTQ children and adolescents has never received any [official] sanction. The state’s many offenses cause the systematic denial of our identities.”

Many problems remain for Peru’s LGBTQ and intersex community. But on the day she awaited for far too long, Rojas was optimistic.

“Today is an historic day,” she said. “This is the new image, the new face of human rights … the beginning of what is yet to come.”