Introduction
The American continent is characterized by being the most violent region towards people with Non-normative gender identities in the world. These cycles of violence, present in all areas of life of trans people, are intermingled with high levels of discrimination and stigmatization, resulting in lack of access to their civil, political, economic, social rights, cultural and environmental.
People with non-normative gender identities do not identify with the name and sex that they were assigned at birth; however, this allocation determines the expectation social that is built around its existence. This social expectation, charged with a worldview cisnormative, heteronormative and binary, it is reflected in a series of obstacles imposed by public and private entities that make the trans world an uncertain, insecure and, in occasions uninhabitable.
Aware of the cycles of discrimination and violence faced by people with identities non-normative gender issues in the region and the lack of access to identity documents that put your self-perceived gender identity, PUICA implemented the project “Strengthening the access of civil registry institutions to knowledge and good practices for the recognition foundation of self-perceived gender identity in identity documents ”, with support of the AECID.
The objective of this project is to contribute to strengthening the institutions of civil registry and identification of the region through two routes. On the one hand, increasing knowledge of international standards American and international human rights law related to the right to recognition of self-perceived gender identity, and on the other, providing access to reference practices, individual stories, experiences and recommendations from their peers. In this way, from the vision of PUICA, OAS Member States will be better equipped to lead changes in their internal policies, processes and procedures, in order to promote the legal recognition of the gender identity in their respective jurisdictions.
As a fundamental right, the right to identity is relevant not only in itself, but also it is a necessary condition for the access and exercise of the rest of the rights, therefore, the absence of regulatory frameworks and institutional practices that allow and promote go the recognition of gender identity, an essential component of the right to identity, can lead to the virtual disqualification of the rights of populations with identities of non-normative gender
As part of the activities contemplated in the project, PUICA developed, in conjunction with Synergía - Initiatives for Human Rights, a regional organization dedicated to the defense and pro- motion for the human rights of LGBTI people, two documents that aim to facilitate the compression of the content of OC-24/17. Likewise, reference practices were documented in matter of civil registration and identification that are developed in the countries of the continent, in light of the standards contained in the resolution of the Inter-American Court.
On the one hand, the document entitled Guidelines for the Implementation of Advisory Opinion No. 24 on the recognition of gender identity is a reference tool for registries civilians in the region in the process of transversally including the human rights approach and gender identity in its various internal processes, functions and mandates. This instrument intends to make available to the civil registration and identification institutions of the region the implications of the standards set by the I / A Court HR in said decision in an accessible manner, with emphasis on those applicable to the legal recognition of gender identity and the work of these institutions, in order to guarantee the implementation of procedures that allow this recognition.
OC-24/17 of the Inter-American Court is the most avant-garde resolution on the rights of LGBTI people globally, so its proper compression is a mandatory task among civil registration and identification institutions of the continent. This work is crucial, as long as registration Civil is the institution in charge of registering and certifying the vital facts of the people, including the birth registration, as well as that which, in due case, has the power to rectify the information contained in the registry records. For its part, the carrying of an identification document tification is essential for the development of social, political, economic and cultural life of people, being essential to univocally demonstrate their identity, as well as to access fully to your rights.
This document entitled Panorama of the legal recognition of gender identity in the Americas offers a horizon on the situation of the recognition of gender identity in the region, observing legislative frameworks, judicial tools and processes typical of the institutions of civil registration and identification. Its publication is expected to facilitate and promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences among the States of the region, as well as contributing with a tool ta that allow civil registries to strengthen their role in guaranteeing the human rights of the citizenship, including recognition of self-perceived gender identity.
The document is made up of seven chapters, including its introduction. In chapter six- Following is a brief explanation of the methodology used to collect the information used in this report. The third chapter summarizes the document Guidelines for the Implementation of Advisory Opinion No. 24 on the recognition of gender identity , at the time of that the fourth chapter proposes a graphic analysis of national and regional practices in light of OC-24/17 standards.
The fifth chapter fully addresses the comparative panorama of current practices in the cases analyzed for this report. Firstly, the administrative nature is analyzed, judicial or mixed of the existing procedures, to later develop a section on the various levels of comprehensiveness of gender identity recognition that these procedures. It also provides an overview of the required requirements; the economic cost and the term that these processes take; the possibilities of approval of the documentation of people who request recognition of their gender identity; the way the confidentiality and privacy of these processes; as well as the treatment of childhoods and adolescents- science with non-normative gender identities and intersectional practices in the countries analyzed. Finally, a section is included that highlights the participation of civil society in the efforts for advancing in the recognition of gender identity.
The sixth and seventh chapters make a proposal of challenges to attend at the regional level, at the same time to offer a series of individual files from each of the countries and jurisdictions analyzed for the study, which summarize the different aspects addressed, and include additional information on the particular aspects of each