A report from the University of Toronto's international human rights program (IHRP) investigates abuses of human rights faced by people affected by HIV and sexual minorities in Mexico.

Authored by IHRP staff lawyer Kristin Marshall and Maia Rotman, JD candidate at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, the report asks that Mexico be removed from Canada's refugee 'safe' list to protect sexual minorities. Failure to do so could place Canada in violation of its international legal obligation, the report says.

"Canada and the United States are complicit, whether purposefully or not, in the increasing precariousness of LGBTQ lives in Mexico," says Rotman.

Since 2013 Mexico has been a Designated Country of Origin (DCO), or a "safe" country, for the purpose of refugee-claim determination in Canada, but the report found that the designation poses challenges for people seeking protection in Canada, particularly persecuted members of the LGBTI community and people living with HIV.

"Instead of moving towards the World Health Organization's 2030 target of eradicating HIV, the disease is increasing among some marginalized populations in Mexico highlighted in our report," Marshall says.

"Access to healthcare simply is not universal in Mexico – widespread discrimination and barriers exist which can compromise lives.

Canada and the United States can and must do more to insist on and assist with mechanisms that truly respect human rights, real infrastructure that brings those accountable for human rights abuses against LGBTI and other vulnerable populations in Mexico to justice."

Samer Muscati, director of the IHRP, agrees. "While Mexico has undertaken significant reforms to combat discrimination and human rights violations, people living with HIV, sexual minorities and other vulnerable Mexicans still have little protection when their rights are violated," he says in a media release.

"Mexico's failure to investigate and hold perpetrators accountable for violent crimes against marginalized populations is completely at odds with Canada's designation of the country as 'safe'."

Marshall also says that she was both surprised and disturbed by the treatment of migrants in Mexico, and especially those from the LGBTI community in particular.

"This was not exactly part of our research, but did factor in to our consideration of Mexico as a 'safe' country nonetheless," she says.

"Prior to going to Mexico, I had no idea that Mexican law recognizes the fact that migrants suffer harm on Mexican soil, and rather than protecting them from that harm as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Refugees, or successfully bringing the perpetrators to justice, Mexico acknowledges the injury that migrants experience by providing a "humanitarian visa" – a temporary status to some of the migrants who suffer harm on Mexican soil."

And many do suffer, she says, but not everyone gets such a visa.

Marshall recalls going to a shelter for migrants while in Mexico. "We went to a shelter that was specifically devoted to migrants who have lost limbs by being pushed off the train as they attempt the dangerous journey across the country and others in need of hospice care to be able to die with dignity. This was beautiful and deeply shocking at the same time," she says.

Rotman, who will be starting her final year of the JD program in the fall, spoke to Veronica Zaretski about her experiences working alongside Marshall, a career human right lawyer, in Mexico.

What did you learn in the process of putting together the "Unsafe and on the Margins" report?

I was shocked by the discrimination women in Mexico faced in trying to access basic healthcare. It was particularly troubling to hear about the widespread discrimination against transgender women, women living with HIV, sex workers and people who inject drugs.

We spoke with many advocates and activists who reported that women from these groups are facing intersecting oppressions.

In many cases these women are not even able to make it through hospital entrances. Sometimes they would turn away for fear of the police officer stationed at the entrance, or they would be forcibly turned away because they did not have adequate identification - or identification that identified them as their presented gender.

Some who do manage to get through the door are then faced with various injustices and discriminations that impede their access to health.

We heard from a few sources that people living with HIV are required to wait to be the last seen by a doctor and are sometimes asked to bring their own medical instruments in order to not infect anyone else.

One of our most shocking interviews was with a woman who ran a shelter and home for current and retired sex workers in Mexico City. Her stories of discrimination against the young women she cared for were horrific.

She told us of having to resort to badgering and threatening healthcare workers just to get them to give basic lifesaving care to young sex workers, with mixed results. Her experience really brought to light that so many are discarded without any justice because they are made invisible by a system that does not care for them.

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