Equinet Special Initiative on Transgender Issues

18 December 2010

This initiative is about making transgender issues visible in the work of the national equality bodies. According to a recent questionnaire conducted by Equinet´s Policy Formation Working Group among its members, very few equality bodies actually work with transgender issues and there is clear gap in legislation regarding protection of transgender persons against discrimination and their equal treatment.

The Equinet initiative on transgender entailed the following activities in the course of the year 2010:

  • A roundtable meeting involving equality bodies took place on Wednesday 8 December at the European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium). The roundtable discussion was hosted by Marije Cornelissen MEP (The Greens/ European Free Alliance) and brought together selected equality bodies and key stakeholders at European level. This meeting was the opportunity to discuss their respective roles in defending the rights of and promoting equality for trans people across Europe. The agenda of the roundtable meeting can be found here. A summary report will be available early 2011.
    based on the findings of the Equinet questionnaire carried out in 2009. It provides suggestions to equality bodies on how to increase the visibility of transgender people in their work. Moreover, the opinion is of interest to the EU Commission and relevant EU institutions as it proposes recommendations on how to support change for transgender people and continue a leadership for equality for transgender.

 
Related information

Reports of the seminar "Living as a transgender in Belgium" organised by the Belgian Institute for the Equality of Women and Men held on 20 November 2009 in Brussels (available in FR) 

Equality and Human Rights Commission (UK) launches a report on transgender issues

Issue Paper by Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights 'Human Rights and Gender Identity' (PDF)

FRA legal report on homophobia, transphobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity

ILGA publication: Transgender people and the Gender Recast Directive - Implementation Guidelines (PDF, 1305KB)

ILGA Europe report on gender discrimination in education and financial services (PDF, 718KB)

ILGA Europe presentation: Coverage and Inclusion of Trans people (Powerpoint, 1.407KB) presented during the ILGA Europe Briefing lunch on Transgender issue on 13 December 2010

Transgender Europe (TGEU) presentation: Trans rights in Europe (Powerpoint presentation, KB) presented during the ILGA Europe Briefing lunch on Transgender issue on 13 December 2010

ILGA's Declaration of the Trans Rights Conference (28 October 2009, Malta), (PDF, 29 KB)