HRC 35 | Side event on Transgender People, Mental Health and Human Rights

All around the world, transgender people are routinely classified as mentally disordered because of their gender identityrefers to a person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth. More and/or gender expressionrefers to how a person presents their gender through physical appearance – including dress, hairstyles, accessories, cosmetics – and mannerisms, speech, behavioural patterns, names and personal references. More. Mental health diagnoses are required by many States to regulate access to basic human rights, such as genderrefers to a social construct which places cultural and social expectations on individuals based on their assigned sex. More recognition, gender affirming healthcare, and its coverage.
This fosters stigma, discriminationunequal or unfair treatment which can be based on a range of grounds - such as age, ethnic background, disability, and diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions or sex characteristics, amongst others. More and violence and denies transgender people’s autonomy and self-determination. Furthermore, pathologization promotes and justifies gross human rights violations, including conversion therapies, sterilization, torture and ill treatment in healthcare settings. It affects transgender people of all ages, including children, adolescents and elders.

Paradoxically, the pathologization of certain bodies, identities and expressions make mental health services hostile or plainly inaccessible to many transgender people and, especially to the most vulnerable ones – transgender people of colour, transgender people living with HIV, transgender sexrefers to the classification of a person as male, female, or other - usually made at birth, written on a birth certificate, and usually based on the appearance of their external anatomy. A person’s sex, however, is actually a combination of bodily characteristics, including chromosomes, hormones, internal and external reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics. More workers, transgender people living in extreme poverty, homelessness, or in prisons, and transgender migrants and refugees.

The extremely negative consequences of pathologizing transgender people have been addressed by UNDP, WHO, OHCHR and different Special Proceduresindependent human rights experts within the UN Human Rights Council with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. They are non-paid and elected for 3-year mandates that can be re-conducted for another three years. Special procedures can undertake country visits, and act on individual cases of reported violations by sending communications to States and others. They also engage in advocacy, raise public awareness, provide advice for technical cooperation, and contribute to the development of international human rights standards.
More, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on Health and the Independent Expert on SOGIabbreviation standing for sexual orientation and gender identity More Issues.

The panel session will provide an opportunity to address human rights violations against transgender people and to discuss current advances in the process to dismantle pathologization both at the national and at the international levels. It will also provide space to discuss practical next steps that need to be taken to improve the situation.

Moderators:

Julia Ehrt, Executive Director, Transgender Europe

Speakers:

Dainius Pūras, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health
Vitit Muntarbhorn, UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based
on sexual orientation and gender identity
Mauro Cabral Grinspan, Executive Director, Global Action for Trans Equality
Vivianne Verguero, Akahatá