From Invisibility to Trans-cendence: Standards of International Human Rights Law Applicable to Trans People’s Claims for Gender Identity Recognition in Peru (and elsewhere)

Abstract

Twenty-first century International Human Rights Law calls for States to provide trans people with access to legal mechanisms for obtaining recognition of their gender identity. What conditions should such procedures meet? Which requirements are forbidden nowadays? Do these standards apply to trans children and adolescents? Do they apply to trans foreigners? Do nonbinary identities have a place in these discussions? Bringing together legal perspectives and first-person accounts, this paper offers an exhaustive systematization of the strides forward made in the Universal, inter-American and European systems for the recognition of diverse and dissident gender identities. It also provides concrete examples of the application of these standards in countries that still lack a gender identity law, such as Peru.