United Nations/CEDAW
Australian women played an important part in the creation of the UN and its formal recognition of women’s rights. The feminist, Jessie Street, together with a small group of other women, was instrumental in inserting language about sex-based rights.
Key landmarks: ECOSOC, CSW, UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CEDAW, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Secretary-General’s remarks to launch the Special Edition of the Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report (25.4.23)
Statement by Ms. Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences (22.5.23)
Letter from Reem Alsalem to WHO Director General complaining about WHO’s recent announcement that it intends to develop a guideline on the health of trans and gender diverse people, and to organize a meeting in Geneva on February 18-21, 2024, to develop
gender-affirmative treatment guidelines and policy recommendations.
See also the Society of Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) website.
- Yogyakarta principles
- Denton’s document
The ‘Dentons document‘ (Only Adults? Good Practices in Legal Gender Recognition for Youth) was produced in November 2019. It uses a legalistic human rights discourse in a Eurocentric report that surveys various countries to provide a ‘guide of best practice’ in international human rights about ‘gender recognition’, with a focus on young people. Three organisations backed the report: IGLYO (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) Youth & Student Organisation) with financial assistance from the Rights Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme 2014-2020 of the European Union as well as the Thompson Reuters Foundation and Dentons, a global law firm–both provided pro bono support (footnote p.3).
The document was clearly designed as a political tool for transgender advocates to influence government legislature and media using human rights concepts (see pp. 18-21).