Tag: ILGA

An Introduction to ILGA’s Trans Legal Mapping Report

ILGA’s 2016 Trans Legal Mapping Report, the first comprehensive mapping of gender recognition laws worldwide, was launched at the 2016 ILGA World Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, in December 2016. The report, co-authored by myself, ILGA’s Zhan Chiam, and Matilda Gonzalez Gil from Colombia Diversa, has garnered a positive reception from activists and writers across the globe, and it is hoped that it will become an annual addition to ILGA’s publications.

The report, which is available to view on ILGA’s website, covers two areas: the availability of legal gender recognition procedures, and access to facilities for legal change of name, in national law. Where legal gender recognition is not available by law, access to legal change of name can allow trans* and gender-variant persons to amend their identification documents in such as a manner as to allow for easier use in everyday life. Accessibility of name change procedures or statutes can also ameliorate the situation for gender-variant persons resident in areas where legal gender recognition involves a drawn-out, pathologised, or uncertain process due to legislative or administrative provisions.

The report also identifies the manner in which access to these two areas is regulated in the country in question: via legal or administrative process, or – as in many cases – if the situation remains unclear or contingent upon the approval of a registrar or judge. The number of jurisdictions wherein this kind of uncertainty is the case allows for reflection on the populations of gender-variant persons across the world for whom gender recognition is an arbitrary and difficult process.

We also note in our findings the conditions on which legal gender recognition, or name change, can be granted. In many countries, gender recognition is contingent on having undergone psychiatric or medical interventions which are invasive and undermine the right to bodily integrity of the person in question. The use of objective criteria to determine if an individual is “trans* enough” to qualify for gender recognition also often relies on Westernised standards such as those in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, meaning that not only is the individual in question asked to conform to certain benchmarks and behaviours, they must allow themselves to be labelled with a “disorder” which may not correlate with their own self-image or cultural background. In highlighting these instances, it is hoped that we can facilitate discussion and analysis of the globalisation of standards used in quantifying which presentations of gender variance are legible in the eyes of the law.

Finally, we also wish to highlight the social effects of laws on gender recognition. While giving platform to the advances made in recent years in countries such as Ireland and Malta, and the undoubted benefits of progressive, human rights-compliant gender recognition legislation, in detailing the conditions under which recognition is granted, we also allow for visualisation of the human impact of gender recognition legislation which demands that the person in question file for divorce from a spouse (in countries which do not allow same-sex marriage) or which interferes with property or succession rights. The impact of gender recognition legislation which does not conform with the international human rights standards which should inherently apply to all people can leave a potential applicant contemplating a difficult choice between identifying as their true gender in the eyes of the law, and instigating a social and personal upheaval.

Although this year’s report concentrates on two specific areas of law, we believe that it can be useful to activists and advocates worldwide, as it allows for comparison and contrast between states’ regimes on a continent-by-continent basis as well as individually. It also allows for temporal visualisation of regional change, such as the sea-change in European law in the years since the adoption of Goodwin and I v United Kingdom in the European Court of Human Rights. We also hope that our contribution to data collection and dissemination will be useful on levels ranging from the individual to the international; as my co-author writes in his introduction to the report: “It is important to bear in mind that not enough states properly consult with trans communities about these identity and documentation processes. It is necessary that we continue engaging with our national governments —by using reliable data, research and good practice examples, targeting our arguments to the local context, and employing the language of human rights —to effect change for our communities.” The usefulness of readily available, quantifiable data to advocates in countries wherein gender-variant life is shrouded through pathologisation or the threat of criminal sanctions cannot be overstated.

Moving forward, the report holds the potential for expansion to investigate areas such as anti-discrimination legislation, violence against gender-variant persons, or the availability of gender-related healthcare. We hope that it will contribute to debate in this still-developing area of law and policy, and that it can make a contribution to the advancement of the status of trans*-identified and gender-variant persons around the world. It is available to download on ilga.org at Trans Legal Mapping Report 2016.

ILGA Trans Legal Mapping Report

This week’s ILGA World Conference in Bangkok (28th November – 2nd December) sees the launch of the organisation’s first global Trans Legal Mapping Report. Co-ordinated by Zhan Chiam, Gender Identity Officer from ILGA, and co-authored by Chiam, Matilda Gonzales Gil (Colombia Diversa), and myself, the report marks an important step in ILGA’s engagement with the status of trans* persons around the world.

The TLM project is a global survey of the availability of legal gender recognition and/or the legal option to change one’s name (whether as part of, or separate to, gender recognition processes). With help from organisations, teams, and researchers around the world, we have created a survey of every continent, finding measures allowing for at least some legal recourse for gender-diverse persons seeking recognition in 103 countries.

The creation of this report posed a number of challenges, not least my own experiences as a desk-based researcher. My sections of the report cover the regions of Europe and South Asia, a linguistically and legally diverse set of countries. Relying on materials from trans organisations, legal commentary, and a selection of dictionaries and translation tools, my task was to – insofar as possible – unite these sources into a coherent whole. The imperfections inherent to this approach have been mitigated by help from ILGA staff and partners across the region, as well as regular consultation with my coauthor, coordinator, and editor Zhan (whose encouragement, kindness, and assistance have been invaluable in not only the research elements of the project, but its every aspect from inception to publication).

The report illuminates the broad spectrum of legal and administrative manners in which different jurisdictions regulate – or fail to regulate – recognition of gender-diverse persons. Many countries operate on the basis of medical requirements for access to updated gender registration, although in some cases, the law requires medical intervention or certification both does not specify what level of intervention is required. In several jurisdictions, the law requires a judicial process, a policy which intensifies the uncertainty facing gender-diverse applicants for recognition – as it means that there is a possibility that the decision-maker could decide against them. The research also turned up some jurisdictions in which the law is currently in flux, showing the very much alive process by which gender recognition laws become updated.

We acknowledge that this project is a snapshot of one aspect of trans lives across the world, and that laws on the statute books do not always translate to accessibility or respect in day-to-day lives. Nevertheless, and in particular because each of the authors has a background in law, we believe that the law is a living instrument and a tool that does not guarantee, but significantly aids the struggle toward equality for minority communities, including gender- and sexuality-based minorities. The influence of international law on domestic legal systems is evident in the legislative processes of many countries, and  the process can also operate in reverse (for example, the citation of a trend toward gender recognition cited in the seminal European Court of Human Rights case Goodwin and I v United Kingdom). The Trans Legal Mapping report joins a body of research from bodies such as Transgender Europe and the United Nations Development project with the goal of informing and educating interested parties, and providing a resource base of international standards for potential activist use. Gender recognition as a field of human rights law is growing and becoming more mainstream, and it is vital that we continue to build these engagements between policy-makers, academics, and front-line activists in order that it continues to flourish.

We hope that the report will promote engagement with debates around legal gender recognition in countries which do not yet feature in its pages, and in those where the laws in place are less than ideal. It is the first edition of what we hope will be an ongoing legal mapping project, with the potential to expand to encompass other issues around trans lives and law – healthcare, discrimination, etc. We hope that its audience will find it illustrative and interesting, and that they take away from it a recognition of the progress made toward vindicating trans persons’ right to recognition, along with a picture of how vital it is that we continue that work.