Friday 20 November is the annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance. It is a time where we remember those whose lives have been lost due to anti-transgender violence.

Back in 2008, Professor Jill Marshall wrote an article analysing the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on claims from individuals seeking recognition and legal safeguards as to their sexuality and gender identity. (Jill Marshall, A right to personal autonomy at the European Court of Human Rights (2008) 3 European Human Rights Law Review 337-356)

The article charts, analyses and critiques the development of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which provides a right to respect for one's private life. She explores how that short provision in an International law treaty has been interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights so that it has become a right to autonomy – to enable us to live our own lives, to become our own person. That Court has ruled that any failure by a state who has signed up to the Convention to permit the alteration of a birth certificate of a person who has undergone gender reassignment, and to recognise their gender, constitutes a violation of Article 8. Legal gender recognition is about ensuring respect for transgender persons’ right to privacy, self-determination, non-discrimination and dignity. In practice, this means providing transgender persons with identity papers and other relevant official documents which match the person’s gender identity. In her 2009 book, Personal Freedom through Human Rights Law? Autonomy, Identity and Integrity under the European Convention on Human Rights Professor Marshall develops these ideas to probe what meanings are given to autonomy, identity and integrity by the Court and whether these may restrict or increase our actual freedom.

See also https://edoc.coe.int/en/lgbt/6963-protecting-human-rights-of-transgender-persons.html

Further information on Transgender Day of Remembrance:

The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was in 1999, organised by Gwendolyn Ann Smith. It was in remembrance of Rita Hester who was killed a year earlier in the United States. There has been massive progress towards the awareness of transgender people in recent years, however, many transgender people still face transphobia on a daily basis whether it is from biological family to strangers on the streets. This year, Royal Holloway will be raising the Transgender flag above Founder's Building. As some of us are working from home, we have also provided a background if you would like to show your support on this day in virtual meetings. Find out more.