International Corrections Reform and Human Rights Protections for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Inmates in Africa and Latin America: LGBTI Integrated Cartographic Information System

• In Event: Collaborative International Criminal Justice Research: Successful Projects from the U.S. State Department’s Diplomacy Lab

Abstract

This panel presentation will showcase a prototype solution of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Integrated Cartographic Information System (ICIS) that includes a global, non-traditional collection of interactive maps, visual information analysis, and application of severity scales to select area study regions in Africa and Latin America in terms of: Conditions of the Law, Condition in the Prisons, and Human Rights Protections for LGBTI Inmates. It was developed during Fall 2015 as part of a collaborative project that was selected by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee as a partner in the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab program. Building on collaboration in the Diplomacy Lab environment between five information science graduate students, one faculty member, and State Department officials during the application of the Independent Study/Graduate Research Participation model, the project identified baseline protections provided to LGBTI inmates and others in select countries in Africa and Latin America. The work-in-progress prototype solution informs U.S. international correction reform efforts to further human rights protections for LGBTI inmates and others, especially those that have laws that criminalize an already marginalized population. The LGBTI Integrated Cartographic Information System is available at URL: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z-_Y0KEOy-NE.k5UTQYAtUD2g.

Author

• Bharat Mehra, University of Tennessee