Honduras urged to investigate transgender killings

The pressure group Human Rights Watch has called on the government of Honduras to investigate the murders of six transgender women.

The women were killed over the past two months.

The government has condemned the killings, but Human Rights Watch says it is failing to prosecute attacks on transgender people.

Murder rates in Honduras are the highest in Central America and are ten times higher than those in the US.

The director of the lesbian campaign group Red Lesbica, Indyra Mendoza, says the murders have shaken the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Honduras.

"We need legislative change and prevention programs to end discrimination in Honduras, because at the moment we are living our lives in hiding," she added.

Human Rights Watch says that the six transgender women who were killed over the past two months also appeared to have been tortured.

The pressure group says that in total, 34 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community have been murdered in Honduras since May 2009.