Press Release – United Nations: 28 States call for legal gender recognition based on self-identification

Press Release – United Nations: 28 States call for legal gender recognition based on self-identification

March 2023

• Theme: Human Rights Council, LGBTIQ.
• Type: Statement.
• Region/Country: Global.
• Language: English, Spanish.

For the first time at the United Nations, a cross-regional group of 28 countries has called for laws and policies that allow legal gender recognition based on self-identification.

Countries called on other States to “implement laws and policies that allow the recognition of gender identity based on self-identification”, and to “redouble efforts to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination, including against women in all their diversity.” They also pointed out how “many UN, as well as regional human rights mechanisms, have recognised that self-identification is fundamental to safeguarding one’s autonomy and dignity and that it is in line with international human rights standards on gender recognition.”

These words mark another milestone for the human rights movement. For years, civil society has worked to make sure that States could listen to the voices of people with diverse gender identities and expressions, and recognise the historic injustices that this population keeps facing every day.

Read the full press statement by ILGA World, Transgender Europe, Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE), RFSL, IWRAW Asia Pacific, Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and IPPF; available in Word and PDF formats.