Human rights bodies' adjudication of trans people's rights : shifting the narrative from the right to private life to cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment

Abstract

Trans people suffer severe violations of their human rights. Human rights bodies and institutions have only addressed these issues to a very limited extent under the right to private life, severely underestimating the harm imposed on trans people. This paper critically analyses the harm caused by the prohibition to obtain Legal Gender Recognition and the requirement to undergo coercive medical treatments to have their identities legally recognized. Through an analysis of regional and international human rights bodies' jurisprudence, the paper re-frames the treatments, and argues that both the pathologisation of trans individuals and the prohibition to obtain Legal Gender Recognition constitute cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment.