by PATRÍCIA CAMPOS MELLO

SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS) - The Brazilian government has vetoed a Mercosur human rights action plan due to the inclusion of the expression "hate crimes" against LGBT people and citing "gender identity".

At a meeting of the Permanent LGBT Commission on Thursday (22), representatives of the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights and Itamaraty stated that the passage that proposed the creation of a "register of hate crimes and discrimination on grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation "was unacceptable.

There was also opposition to the proposal to include "gender identity" in countries' administrative records. Sought, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights stated in a note that "with regard to the term 'hate crime', the portfolio starts from the understanding that there is no classification regarding such modality in Brazilian law, which can cause legal impediments to the approval of international guidelines for the registration of crimes that are not recognized by the national legal system ".

For Thiago Amparo, professor of international law at FGV-Direito, the justification is "completely unreasonable". "In June last year, the STF [Supreme Federal Court] determined that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity would be considered a crime punishable by the Racism Law", he says. "And in the decision, the STF used the expression 'hate crimes' 21 times."

The court also ruled that police stations across Brazil qualify discrimination against LGBT people as a motive in homicide crimes where there is an intention to kill. In other words, deaths due to sexual orientation and gender identity came to be seen as qualified homicides. Read more via Folhabress/Yahoo