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Pressure builds to move Tassie’s human rights laws into ‘modern world’
An Australian legal body has issued a series of letters to Tasmanian MPs, urging them to vote for amendments it says will help move the state’s human rights laws into the “modern world”.
Emma Musgrave
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) is urging state MPs to vote for amendments to the Justice and Related Legislation (Marriage Amendments) Bill 2018 currently before the Tasmanian Legislative Council.
“These amendments will afford improved rights to transgender, intersex and gender diverse people in Tasmania, including the ability to have gender (male or female) as recorded by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages reflected on a birth certificate or to be absent from a birth certificate," explained Georgia Burke, co-chair of ALHR’s LGBTI Rights Committee, said.
“These amendments are consistent with relevant international human rights standards, including the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10 (YP+10), which affirm binding international legal standards and their application to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Those standards impose obligations on states to ensure that official identity documents only include personal information that is relevant, reasonable and necessary as required by the law for a legitimate purpose. The standards also call for an end to the registration of sex and gender on identity documents such as birth certificates. Application of these principles has real effect for the transgender and gender diverse community in Tasmania.
"For example, insisting on the inclusion of gender on birth certificates perpetuates a view that intersex children ought to confirm with a gender determined by parents or medical practitioners and, as a consequence, perpetuates the tendency towards subjecting intersex children to unnecessary surgical procedures.”
ALHR LGBTI Committee co-chair Nicholas Stewart said the legal body is supporting the bill as it puts human rights on the centre stage in Tasmania.
“ALHR supports this bill because it tackles key issues of importance to the LGBTI community and brings Tasmania’s human rights into the modern world," Mr Stewart said.
"We are pleased to see the bill proposing amendments that enable people to amend identification documents, namely birth certificates, to reflect the person’s lived gender, without the need for gender reassignment surgery.
"We are also encouraged by the bill’s proposed accommodation of parents of intersex children in relation to being given 60 days before being required to register their child’s birth. If passed, the amendments will not take any rights away from parents or other citizens. However, they will ameliorate potential human rights violations against transgender, intersex and other gender diverse Tasmanians."
By removing the requirement that transgender Tasmanians obtain a divorce in order to change their gender, Mr Stewart noted that the proposed amendments also give effect to a 2017 decision of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which found such a requirement in breach of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.
“ALHR urges members of the Legislative Council to give due and proper weight to relevant international human rights standards and support these amendments in their entirety," he concluded.
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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