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Letter asking where the bill on the legal recognition of gender identity is and why, after six years of debate, it has not been tabled in Parliament, the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men and Women intends to send to the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men and Women.
This particular issue arose during the Committee's meeting today, on the occasion of a bill tabled by Speaker of Parliament Anita Demetriou to change a term in the legislation on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence to match the terminology in the Istanbul Convention on the subject. Ms. Demetriou, who was present in the Committee, said she called for the definition of the term woman to clearly include the inclusion of girls under 18.
However, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, Head of the Equality Sector, Stavros Christofi said that the existing wording adequately covers girls and is in line with the obligations of the Istanbul Convention as it covers not only women under 18 with a female biological sex but also with a female gender identity. He also noted that in case of a change it would probably be more restrictive. This law, she said, passed by Parliament has a much broader definition than the Istanbul Convention.
Committee Chair Irene Charalambidou expressed reservations about whether the proposed change in definition would cover cases of gender reassignment under the age of 18.
At the same time, she informed that on the issue of the gender identity bill, the Minister of Justice told her to give her 15 days to see where it stands, and made it clear that if there is no response in the next two months, she will submit a proposal for a law for legislative protection of gender identity.
MP for the Ecological Citizens' Co-operation Movement Alexandra Attalidou said she knows that a lot of work has been done on the issue and does not understand why the bill is not being tabled, while she suggested that the Committee write a letter to ask where it stands, which the Committee's Chairwoman Irene Charalambidou agreed with.
AKEL MP Giorgos Koukumas said that because there was an issue with the Istanbul Convention by conservative governments who said that they would "open up the debate on trans people" a different definition was introduced, but in Cyprus there was no such problem and a broader term was adopted in the legislation. In this way, he said, even if the legal recognition of gender identity is not passed, these people will be protected from domestic violence.
The debate will continue and the Commission agreed to invite people and organisations working on these issues to give their views on the matter.
Source: CNA
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