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19 - (Trans)gender Identity and International Human Rights Law

from Part III - Expanding Frameworks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2026

Samuel Moyn
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Meredith Terretta
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
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Summary

One of the most revolutionary human rights treaties, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), was premised on the goal of achieving equality for sexes defined in a binary manner. In a far more recent history, as Sandra Duffy reconstructs in her chapter, gender identity and how to conceptualize and recognize the rights of transgender and other claimants have been high-profile points of controversy in international fora.

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References

Further Reading

Antić, M. and Radačić, I., “The Evolving Understanding of Gender in International Law and ‘Gender Ideology’ Pushback: 25 Years since the Beijing Conference on Women,” Women’s Studies International Forum 83/3 (2020), article 102421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J., Undoing Gender (New York, Routledge, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charlesworth, H., “The Hidden Gender of International Law,” Temple International and Comparative Law Journal 16/1 (2002), 93–102.Google Scholar
Cossman, B., “Gender Performance, Sexual Subjects and International Law,” in Otto, D. (ed.), Gender Issues and Human Rights, vol. 3 (Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar, 2013), pp. 792–813.Google Scholar
Graff, A. and Korolczuk, E., Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment (Abingdon, UK, Routledge, 2022).Google Scholar
Kapur, R., Gender, Alterity and Human Rights: Freedom in a Fishbowl (Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugones, M., “Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System,” Hypatia 22/1 (2007), 186–209.Google Scholar
McGill, J., “SOGI … So What? Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Human Rights Discourse at the United Nations,” Canadian Journal of Human Rights 3/1 (2014), 1–38.Google Scholar
O’Brien, W., “Can International Human Rights Law Accommodate Bodily Diversity?Human Rights Law Review 15/1 (2015), 1–20.Google Scholar
Otto, D. (ed.), Queering International Law: Possibilities, Alliances, Complicities, Risks (Abingdon, Routledge, 2018).Google Scholar
Waites, M., “Critique of ‘Sexual Orientation’ and ‘Gender Identity’ in Human Rights Discourse: Global Queer Politics beyond the Yogyakarta Principles,” Contemporary Politics 15/1 (2009), 137–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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