The Human Right to Gender Identity: From the International Human Rights Scenario to Latin American Domestic Legislation

Abstract

Transgender persons usually undergo significant discrimination all over the world. This is the reason why gender identity has been translated into the language of International Human Rights Law. Thus, the European Court of Human Rights has evolved along the last decades towards the recognition of this human right, and so has the Inter-American Court by releasing its recent advisory opinion on gender identity, equality and non-discrimination of same sex couples. Within this framework, some Latin American countries have passed regulations entitling trans persons to have their public records as regards their name, sex marker and image data modified. Nevertheless, these juridical norms of domestic law might not entirely comply with the standards that have been set by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights since they tend to reproduce cultural patterns of gender which lead to a pathological comprehension of transgenderism. In this analysis, Argentinian legislative experience is accounted for as a cutting-edge exemption in this matter.