Yesterday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a comprehensive resolution on trans persons’ human rights.
In a nutshell, the resolution calls upon member states to (from TGEU):
- Adopt explicitly trans-inclusive anti-discrimination and hate crime legislation and measures,
- Adopt quick, transparent and accessible legal gender recognition procedures, based on self-determination, without further limitations based on a person’s characteristic (such as age),
- Abolish sterilization and other medical requirements such as a mental health diagnosis or a divorce requirement in legal gender recognition,
- Ensure that the best interest of the child in cases concerning children is always given primary consideration,
- Consider including a third gender option in identity documents for those who seek it,
- Make trans-specific health care accessible and ensure that trans people (incl. children) are not labelled as mentally ill in national or international classifications,
- Be pro-active as concerns information, awareness raising and training, particularly for professional groups.
One of Seta’s objectives for the newly elected Parliament of Finland is to renew legislation so that legal gender recognition would be based on self-determination. At the moment, the Finnish legislation demands sterility, medical records, changing marriage into civil partnership, and 18 years age. In April, a working committee of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is going to publish its report that proposes that developing legislation towards self-determination should be considered.
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