Legal gender recognition is about a person’s recognition and protection before the law and their ability to navigate through areas of daily life. It refers to transgender, gender diverse and intersex people’s ability to obtain official identification documents that reflect their name and gender identity through legal and administrative processes. These processes include changing name details and gender markers on identification documents and administrative records, such as birth certificates, identity cards, passports, driver’s licenses, and educational and employment records.
This brief is written to support engagements around legal gender recognition between the Government of Zimbabwe and organisations advocating for the rights of transgender (or trans), gender diverse and intersex individuals in Zimbabwe. The brief aims to provide empirical evidence based on up-to-date international scientific understanding and best practices on issues pertaining to legal gender recognition, including changing ‘sex’ or gender in identity documents. The brief also provides contextual information on the understanding of and the relationship between sex and gender, on gender-affirming practices and gender-affirming healthcare, and on international best practices related to the legal affirmation of sex or gender. The brief is meant to assist the Government of Zimbabwe in interpreting and revising its laws and policies to align with international standards and current understandings of gender identity and gender affirmation.
The brief was developed in consultation with organisations representing the interests of persons who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming or gender-diverse who met for a consultative meeting in Bulawayo on 24 November 2023.
You can access the report here.
