[18/11/08 09:00] On November 18, Commissioner Hammarberg met with 12 transgender human rights experts whom he invited to discuss the human rights situation of this community. Participants presented and discussed the international legal standards in the field of gender identity discrimination, access to health care, recognition of gender before the law, discrimination in the fields of employment, housing, education, transphobic hate crimes. The Commissioner stressed that all these issues, in particular the very basic human rights of transgender persons, need to be more strongly addressed in light of current human rights mechanisms. Because of a lack of data, the Commissioner also underlined the need for more research in each of these areas. As a follow-up, a Viewpoint on transgender human rights is planned for early 2009 and the meeting discussions will be used for further work.
Programme
Photo: Lewis Turner (Press for Change), Thomas Hammarberg and Stephen Whittle (Chair of Transgender Europe, TGEU)