ประชุมนานาชาติเรื่องอัตลักษณ์ทางเพศและสิทธิมนุษชน

Transgender is a constant that appears in all known human societies in all ages, regardless of the achievements that modern medicine has made in this area to enable a greater adaptation of the physical appearance of the transgender person, to the gender sense as their own. The responses that different societies have given this reality of the human being, however, have varied widely over time and in different parts of our world. Some societies have accepted in a greater or lesser degree this reality, creating social tools and laws to improve the integration of the transgender people into the society, as members with full rights. Others have expressed varying degrees of rejection and/or prosecution and suppression of transsexuality promoting policies of violent eradication, re-education or social persecution, and the result has generate serious human rights violations.

Today, while a few countries have recognized being trans as a condition of the human being and so they have developed the tools for its protection and the recognition of its civil rights (the right to marry, to receive medical assistance during the transition, to the civil recognition of the change of identity, to the full exercise of family rights, etc..), other countries impose repressive policies which may involve imprisonment, corporal punishment or even the death penalty. Not reaching such levels, many societies practice varying degrees of institutional violence (police harassment, absence of guardianship) or tolerance to social violence against transgender minorities (lack of police or judicial protection against murder, lynchings or minor assaults). Many of these are also contrary to the commitments made with the signing of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights of the UN.

Finally, even in the most advanced societies on the acceptance and recognition of transgender, the group of trans people encounter strong levels of social rejection, difficulties for insertion into the labour market, in the access to housing, healthcare, in the exercise of their family, sexual and reproductive rights,  making it one of the most disadvantaged groups on this society.

Transgender people, statistically speaking, are one of the groups most affected by marginal conditions (prostitution, drug addiction, etc.) and by the difficulty of employment, it's probably the group with higher rates of suicide as well as deaths by deficiencies in health assistance received during its transition process. The specific achievements obtained in countries such as Spain, Uruguay, Great Britain, the Netherlands, etc. do not hide, as we move in a global society, its limited scope and often not recognized beyond the borders of the granting countries.

In this context, Human Rights Watch, along with several Spanish and foreign public administrations has decided to celebrate a global International Conference on Gender Identity and Human Rights, along with a broad coalition of groups and associations for the recognition of the rights of the transgender people and the Spanish and international LGTB movement. The idea of performing for the first time, a global conference with transgender people, by transgender people and for transgender people, aims as final target to gather and give voice to a group sparsely represented in society, to hear for the first time, with the participation of members around the world and from all cultures, an overall consideration of their problems, demands and proposed solutions. And finally, the adoption of a basic document addressed to the States, international organizations, associations and NGOs to serve as a working paper, line orientation and objectives document in the implementation of legislative policy and human rights protection to be applied to the Group of transgender people.

Conference

The Conference will be held between the 4th and the 6th of June, 2010 in the School of Law, University of Barcelona, joining the Pre-Conference to be held on the same stage from the 1st to the 3rd of June.

The format of the Conference will include a protocolary reception session to show our recognition to the representatives of the administrations that have made this Congress possible, several sessions attended by all participants as well as several thematic workshops to be held simultaneously, although they will begin prior to the conduction of the meetings of the Conference. To ensure the success of this format an international working group has been created on the net, from which is expected to obtain a preliminary document that can be discussed in working groups, after which they will draft a comprehensive final document of the Congress results.

One of the main targets of the Conference will be to carry out a document not only setting out general principles of protection relating to human rights but also specific suggestions for legislative developments by governments in relation to the rights of trans people. This final document will become the main roadmap for activists and advocacy organizations on the rights of trans people worldwide. Our ultimate goal is to achieve a global impact on the recognition of the dignity of all persons of this group, trans men and women, as well as providing means for this to be possible.

Reference: http://www.congenid.org/