Queering Gender [Identity] in International Law

Abstract

In a growing number of countries, developments in domestic law concerning transgendered people are moving towards a more social approach to recognising and regulating gendered bodies. International developments – illustrated here by the Yogyakarta Principles - appear to be taking a different course in which (bio)logic and heteronormative family forms are uncritically embraced. This article provides examples from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which illustrate a reluctance to fully pursue the opportunities opened by new understandings of sex/gender and the related unwillingness to address gendered discrimination suffered by men and other genders. To counter the reinstatement of biology as foundational in gender, the article argues for more feminist and queer coalitional work and the adoption of a performative understanding of ‘sex’. A more liberatory and inclusive conception of gender should be pursued, without obscuring the specificity and diversity of the human rights abuses felt by those who are, or who are perceived as, transgendered.