Exploring the applicability and limitations of international human rights law to the protection of transgender persons: a case study on detention

This thesis explores and analyses the applicability and limitations of human rights law as it applies to transgender persons. As such limitations are most evident in a strictly sex segregated spaces, the thesis proposes a case study on detention to illustrate potential conflict between the binary models of the sexes, gender fluidity and application of international human rights law to those with transgender or non-binary gender identity. For this, the thesis reviews international human rights law sources, queer theory literature and transgender and non-binary gender studies. This research examines the issues of transgender and non-binary identities and their recognition in law, including developments in international human rights law and the recognition of transgender identities in human rights instruments. The thesis considers issues such as underlying principles of human rights, and substantive rights applicable to transgender persons while surveying the national jurisprudences to assemble and fully examine the available models of transgender recognition in law. The case study on detention analyzes the lived experiences of transgender prisoners and their life stories. It examines the international standards on the treatment of transgender prisoners and their human rights. The scope and applicable framework of protection is also discussed, considering the tension between binary nature of prisons and transgender persons’ non-binary gender. Overall, this thesis initiates a discussion about the binary/non-binary dichotomy in the prison context and asks a series of questions as to how transgender and non-binary gender identities can be accommodated in the prison context. It concludes with a number of recommendations for a deeper understanding of sex/gender and prison dichotomy both in theory and practice. The thesis also offers practical recommendations to international human rights mechanisms to provide specific guidelines on the application of human rights law to transgender and other non-binary gender prisoners.