1 / 10

Transgender and Legal Issues Nicolas J. Beger for ILGA-Europe

Transgender and Legal Issues Nicolas J. Beger for ILGA-Europe. Terms. Transsexuality as identity category Gender identity as legal category Transgender and gender expression are not a legal category usually There is no protection from the binary gender order.

cameron-nicholson
Download Presentation

Transgender and Legal Issues Nicolas J. Beger for ILGA-Europe

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Transgender and Legal Issues Nicolas J. Beger for ILGA-Europe

  2. Terms • Transsexuality as identity category • Gender identity as legal category • Transgender and gender expression are not a legal category usually • There is no protection from the binary gender order

  3. Legal Situation in Europe Council of Europe • ECHR applies to all • Monitor for change in national law • 5 decisive cases National Law Transgenders • Legal competence • Option 1: no gender reassign- ment possible • Option 2: individual court or administrative solutions • Option 3: patchwork legislation • Option 3: specific legislation European Union • Anti-Discrimination • Charter of Fundamental Rights • 2 Court Cases ECJ

  4. Main Issues of National Law National legislation is very different: oldest law Sweden 1972, most advanced law UK 2004; ranges from statute law to registry law, case law, and administrative rules; specific legislation rare (Germany, Italy, Finland, NL, Sweden, Turkey, UK) Problems: • Some do not offer any legal changes. • Some offer individualised solutions that leave people to the mercy of individuals. • Some make the name change a huge burden. • Almost all require irreversible infertility.

  5. Main Issues of National Law • Almost all force treatment and surgery. • Almost all force divorce, some do not allow marriage. • All have at least some restrictions on parenting (birth certificate of the children). • Almost all unduly mix legal requirenments and medical treatment. • None delivers adequate and timely health coverage. • Data protection not always assured. • Social security and pension rights are a big issue. • Death and succession often not clarified. • Treatment of non-national often unclear.

  6. Gender Recognition Act • June 2004 after 4 cases at ECHR (Christine Goodwin) • Request with 2 medical certificates (own choice, 1 specialist) • Complete change with all rights and obligations • Clearer division between law and medicine: no legally prescribed infertility, no forced hormone treatment • Forced divorce, but later marriage possible (KB case ECJ) • Birth certificate of children remains, but legal parentage possible (XZY)

  7. ECHR Cases 7 Cases & 9 EComHR • 5 important cases • B v France (1992) • XZY v UK (1997) • Sheffield & Horsham v UK (1998) • Christine Goodwin v UK (2002) • van Kück v Germany (2003) • No legal obligation but moral pressure

  8. ECJ Cases Cases in relation to employment law and the gender directives • P v S and Cornwall County Council (1996) • Lisa Grant v South West Trains LtD (1998) • KB v National Health Service Pension Agency and the Secretary of State for Health (2004)

  9. Possibilities for future work • Ways of connecting EU and national law: can we dream up a European decision that prohibits irreversible infertility? That assures the right to legal gender reassignment? That prohibits the conflation of health care and law? • Health care: access to adequate treatment? Access to care in other MS? Coverage that is a right not an individual fight? Reduction of the power of psychiatrists? • Deletion from the WHO list of psychiatric disorders? • Collection of legal data, data on discrimination cases? • Anti-discrimination and employment law. • Bringing the issue onto the agenda of EU, NGOs etc. • Supporting ECHR cases.

  10. Thanks for listening! Questions Welcome!

More Related