- Published:
- Wednesday 15 May 2024 at 5:25 am
We are committed to a fair, just and inclusive society, where the human rights of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people are respected, protected and fulfilled.
In a recent submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), we have highlighted the issues and barriers we see TGD people face every day in our work across legal and non-legal systems.
We commend the AHRC’s mapping project to further investigate current and emerging threats to the human rights of TGD people.
‘Through our work, we see how the discrimination and transphobia TGD communities face can lead to heightened risks of issues like homelessness, unemployment and poverty,’ said Executive Director Rowan McRae from our Legal Practice, Civil Justice, Access and Equity team.
‘In our work, we witness the resilience of TGD communities alongside the harms they face every day, and welcome efforts to drive change so trans and gender diverse people can live lives free of injustices.’
Supporting TGD communities
Last year we helped TGD clients with matters including family violence, discrimination, criminal law and healthcare.
We offer specialist discrimination and harassment assistance to individuals so they can uphold their human rights under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic).
Through our work, we see two key issues impacting the rights of TGD communities:
- discrimination and transphobia underpinning systemic injustices across legal and non-legal systems
- inconsistent national human rights and anti-discrimination frameworks that impact a TGD person’s ability to assert their human rights in courts or tribunals.
Our clients are often misgendered at work and other places, and have experienced detrimental placement in binary systems, like prisons and mental health wards, including a lack of access to gender affirming care.
We also see discriminatory policies across schools, involving accommodation and camps, bathroom use and uniforms.
We have helped clients who have been unable to graduate because their certificates were not issued in the correct name.
‘We see firsthand the risk and harm caused to our clients as a result of laws or policies that do not adequately take human rights into account,’ said Rowan.
‘At Victoria Legal Aid, we support a national Human Rights Act to instil a rights-respecting culture within government and among government decision-makers.
‘We would also like to see stronger protections and consistency across federal and state anti-discrimination laws.’
We also look forward to the Victorian Government progressing its commitment to broadening hate speech protections to include gender identity, sex characteristics and sexual orientation, aligning with the Equal Opportunity Act.
More information
Read our submission to the AHRC
Learn more about our Equality Law Program
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