appointed Special Prosecutor 
15/12/2009 / / EL NUEVO DIARIO
The mission of the Special Prosecutor for Sexual Diversity is to defend the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). The new Ombudsman, Montiel Samira, a lesbian activist and advocate of the organization SAFO was appointed and sworn in on November 30, 2009, in Managua, during a ceremony headed by the Procurator General of Human Rights in Nicaragua. The appointment of a Special Prosecutor for Sexual Diversity is the first in Latin America.
Over 250 people attended and applauded the appointment, including representatives of various LGBT groups. A person newly appointed Ombudsman for Sexual Diversity said in his speech that his new position is the result of a long struggle in which many people participated and that their work also involves the obligation to work hard for the rights of LGBT groups. Promises to challenge society's prejudices against LGBT people in his new position and invited the LGBT groups that support this work.
The Norwegian Ambassador Tom Tyrihjell gave a rousing speech in which among other things, stressed that LGBT people represent 10% of the population, they are our brothers and sisters, cousins, neighbors, colleagues and children. Many of them suffer from not being accepted and live their love for their partner a secret.
Norway's attitude is that these groups should be respected and fully participate in social processes and be confident that their human rights are guaranteed. Only they can participate as citizens in a successful development process towards a more tolerant and inclusive Nicaragua.
In general, unfortunately, the human rights situation of LGBT people in Nicaragua is still very vulnerable. Have traditionally been excluded and marginalized. Until July 2008 there a law that criminalized the relationship between same sex. This law no longer exists. Above, the religious traditions of the population are categorized as LGBT people should be punished for their immorality. This has created a vicious circle that has made it difficult to promote even minimal demands on human rights and sexual diversity of LGBT people.
In 2006, started the movement "Initiative for sexual diversity and human rights" (IDSDH) in Nicaragua, initiated by a group of gays and lesbians, an initiative with limited resources, but with a firm conviction that it was important do something. Decided to participate more actively in the daily lives of organizing Nicaragua and promoting cultural regular meetings, marches and appeals.
On the issue of sexual diversity Norway also participates in a mutual fund (EDF) to support projects within the themes of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health. The EDF with pooling feature offers the possibility of increasing support for a variety of local organizations and has supported several projects on the topic of sexual diversity and deserves special mention support for the feature film "Love Story with Final Announced "to the educational campaign on issues of gender equality and sexual rights, financial support for the organization of men against violence, among others.
One can see that this variety of local initiatives prepared the basis for the abolition of the law prohibiting relations between persons of the same sex, and so began the long road towards a more tolerant and inclusive society.
In 2009, IDSDH allied with the Center for International Studies, CIS, a local NGO working in peace processes and reconciliation, to strengthen professional skills and strategy of the LGBT movement. Was submitted to the Norwegian Embassy in Managua the project "Action Research for the Construction of a Human Rights Agenda and the Transformation of Discrimination and Violence in the LGBT Community and Strengthening Movement of Sexual Diversity in Nicaragua "that the Embassy decided to support.
The project has helped to strengthen guarantees of human rights of LGBT people and represents a good basis for the struggles of the groups. In a year of implementation project can be seen to have formed alliances between organizations representing lesbians (SAFO), an organization representing transgender (Anit) and IDSDH mainly representing gays.
groups have been established and are fighting for a specific political agenda based on rights claims, particularly with regard to issues such as family, education, health, employment and access to justice. The new Special Prosecutor is SAFO Sexual Diversity.
As one result of the project has prepared a study on the situation of LGBT in Nicaragua shows:
• 76.7% of LGBT people in poverty living on two dollars or less per day. Of these, 45% live on less than a dollar a day, which testifies to an extremely vulnerable.
• One in four LGBT people are unemployed. Unemployment among the LGBT population is twice the general population. In addition, one in four LGBT people has been discriminated against at work because of their sexual identity,
• Two out of five LGBT people are not accepted by his family (siblings, mother and / or parent).
The study highlights the importance of working to change attitudes through education to reduce discrimination and exclusion.
The four partners organized two regional workshops for LGBT organizations. About 450 representatives of LGBT organizations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica participated in two seminars.
Your communication during the two events shows that the situation of these groups in the region is very similar to what exists in Nicaragua. The two regional meetings have made IDSDH and Nicaragua at the head of the human rights struggle of sexual diversity in Central America. In the first seminar also attended by representatives of the organization "Skeiv Ungdom" in Norway.
The results of the initiatives of the four organizations have received attention from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health of Nicaragua who are now developing action plans to combat discrimination against LGBT people in the country
