EU-Parliament endorses trans people human rights
Press release
For Immediate Release
June 17 2010, Brussels
Yesterday, the Parliament officially acknowledged discrimination on grounds of gender identity, calls for accessible gender reassignment procedures, and insists future EU gender equality initiatives should address issues linked to gender identity and gender reassignment.
Transgender Europe welcomes the strong endorsement by the European Parliament in favor of safeguarding transgender people’s fundamental rights.
The Figueiredo-report evaluating the European Union’s 2006-2010 Roadmap for equality between women and men was adopted today, and calls for more explicit measures to combat discrimination based on gender identity. In particular, the report:
- acknowledges discrimination and multiple discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and/or gender identity;
- calls on EU authorities to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisations in future work on gender equality;
- stresses that gender reassignment procedures should be made accessible, including through public health insurance schemes; and
- requires that future EU actions in the field of gender equality explicitly cover issues linked to gender identity and gender reassignment.
TGEU salutes this ground-breaking acknowledgment as an important step forward in achieving equality for transgender people. We call upon the European Commission to follow these recommandations in the Roadmap for Gender Equality. This will strengthen human rights of transgender people in the European Union. TGEU hopes that it will eventually lead to an easy and accessible procedures for the legal gender recognition in the member states. Still many EU member states require sterilization and compulsory sex reassignment surgery for legal gender recognition. This contradicts Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, guaranteeing each person’s right to a private and family life.
“These unjustified violations of the human rights of transgender people have to be ended now. Member States need to ensure accessible, transparent and quick administrative procedures to change name and gender” says Dr. Julia Ehrt, TGEU-vice chair “This would send a strong signal that transgender people are no second-class citizens because of their gender identity. A first step in that direction has been taken today.”
Richard Köhler, TGEU-Steering committee member says: “The EU has the potential and willingness to become the world’s pioneer in safeguarding transgender people’s fundamental rights. We call upon the up-coming Belgian EU-Presidency to ensure internal and external coherence of the EU, when promoting Human Rights worldwide.”
END
TransGender Europe – TGEU is a European third sector, umbrella organization, which works towards the full equality and inclusion of all trans people in Europe. Find out more information on www.tgeu.org
Contact: Secretary@tgeu.org