TGEU welcomes milestone transgender rights document
Press Release
Copenhagen, 29 July 2009.
Transgender Europe (TGEU) congratulates Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Mr Thomas Hammarberg upon his presentation of the by far most extensive statement on the situation of transgender persons by a European official ever. Commissioner Hammarberg launches his issue paper “Human Rights and Gender Identity” today at the World Out GamesHuman Rights Conference in Copenhagen.
Julia Ehrt, Co-Chair of TGEU, states: ‘This document is setting the standard for years to come. Politicians, policy makers and human rights activists will have to measure their achievements against this standard set out here when assessing the human rights situation of transgender persons.’
The paper comprehensively maps out how the rights of transgender persons are violated today and lays forth measures member states have to take to erase the discrimination of these people face. TGEU calls upon all Member States to promptly act upon the paper’s recommendations. It is high time to take “all necessary concrete actions to ensure that transphobia is stopped and that transgender persons are no longer discriminated against in any field, wrote Mr Hammarberg in his Viewpoint on Transgender Issues from January 2009.
ALL transgender persons’ rights need to be protected, explicitly including those living outside the traditional binary genders not covered by ‘transsexual’ legislation. Sterilization and other compulsory medical treatments need to be abolished as a legal requirement when recognizing a person’s gender identity. At the same time transgender related health care needs to be made available. Hate crime legislation needs to include protection transgender victims.
The issue paper can be find on: www.coe.int/t/commissioner.
Transgender Europe – TGEU is European Network working for the equality of all transgender persons in Europe. For more information on TGEU, please visit www.tgeu.org.