Roundtable “Upholding rights of transgender people in Europe – Obligations of member states under the current European legislative framework” on November 21st 2011, Ankara (Turkey)
Transgender Europe, with the logistical support by Pembe Hayat, organized a round table on the legal obligations states have in Europe towards transgender persons. The one-day event brought together 13 civil society actors with their national equality bodies and (i) provided input on available legal tools and (ii) initiated inter-institutional collaboration to improve the living situation for trans persons.
Three expert inputs (anti-discrimination, legal gender recognition hate crime) provided an overview of already established human rights in form of case law by the European courts, legal best practices from national contexts and “soft law” tools (e.g. Council of Europe Recommendation on measures to combat homo- and transphobia 2010(5)). The presentations were followed by case studies and discussions.
Dennis Van der Veur, advisor to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, introduced the study commissioned by the Commissioner’s office as the first comprehensive study on the legal and social situation in all 47 member states of the Council of Europe in this regard. He pointed out the valuable information pertained within and the recommendations developed on the findings of the research.
Country groups brought together equality bodies with a respective representative of the trans community to identify common priority areas and develop further potential collaborations.
Materials
Power point presentations on legal instruments safeguarding human rights of trans persons in the areas of:
o anti-discrimination (.ppt)
o legal gender recognition (.ppt)
o hate crime (.ppt)
Collection of relevant European legal texts (pdf. 4,4MB)
Study on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity (.pdf 19MB)
Issue Paper “Human Rights and Gender Identity” (HR Commissioner Hammarberg 2009) (.pdf)
Activists Toolkit “…And Others!” Argumentation Training for Transgender Inclusion in Europe
The event was financially supported by the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe.