ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 20: Silent march, lit by candles on the occasion of TDoR, Transgender Day of ... [+]
A global ranking of countries in Europe and Central Asia's approach to transgender rights has shown a positive increase despite growing anti-trans backlash from some governments and media.
The past 12 months saw an increase in trans rights in the region. This builds on the return to progress seen in 2022 after years of decreasing levels of rights.
The findings come from Transgender Europe's (TGEU) latest release. It's part of decade-long work tracking trans rights across Europe and Central Asia.
Despite progress in the last year, the risk of regression and anti-trans backlash remains a pressing issue for the report authors.
TGEU says some countries lost points in 2023 and are in danger of further regression. Slovakia stands out as the government considers a de-facto ban on legal gender recognition.
Elsewhere countries that developed trans rights were Spain, Moldova, Andorra, Finland, and Iceland.
Iceland overtook Malta to be listed at the top of the ranking.
TGEU's trans rights map or Europe and Asia
Where have trans rights progressed in the last year?
Spain's far-reaching law was one of the most significant changes in the last year.
The new law covered employment, protections for trans migrants, and discrimination based on gender expression. Nonbinary people were, however, left out of the legal gender recognition change.
Still, along with Finland, the law in Spain adopted legal gender recognition based on self-determination.
This means 11 countries now have a form of 'Self-ID' or a self-determination-based legal gender recognition model.
In the U.K., there has been a vast amount of anti-trans rhetoric from the media and the government. Scotland, which passed a Self ID bill, was blocked by Westminster from bringing this into law - something they plan to challenge in the courts.
It is therefore, notable that despite a form of legal recognition across the U.K., the report marks this as not consistently available. The report says the U.K., despite laws and procedures, does not provide consistent results for it to be recognised fully.
Legal Gender recognition map across Europe and Asia
What other changes have Europe and Asia brought about for trasngender people?
Kazakhstan became the first Central Asian country since 2020 to gain points. It is now possible to access necessary diagnosis certificates again.
However, legal gender recognition procedures in Kazakhstan remain discriminatory. There are many restrictions that pathologise trans people.
There was also progress in banning so-called 'conversion therapy' on grounds of gender identity in Spain and Greece.
Moldova made some changes to protect trans people from discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech too.
While a change in Albania means 26 countries now mention gender identity in their asylum legislation.
Countries where hate crime and discrimination laws are in place for transgender people
"Work to be done" on transgender rights
The director of TGEU reflects that while the progress is encouraging, there is work to be done:
"We urge civil society organisations, human rights defenders, and policymakers to stay alert. To keep working together to create more inclusive societies," comments Lenny Emson, Executive Director of TGEU.
"They must implement effective measures to combat violence and discrimination, and promote full respect for the human rights of trans individuals."
In terms of regression, the worst was seen in Slovakia. This is due to inconsistent requirements for legal gender recognition, and a new bill threatens to outlaw it entirely
The report also notes that many EU Member States are "failing to meet their obligations to trans people."
Nine still do not provide asylum protection – Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. TGEU says this is in violation of EU law.
Freya Watkins, one of TGEU's Research Officers, adds:
"We cannot be complacent, as the current example of anti-trans backlash in Slovakia shows. Our data from the last ten years show that legal protections for trans people are on an upward trajectory in many policy areas. However, progress must come faster for the most marginalised trans communities, in particular trans youth, where rights are first to be restricted."
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