Contested Subjects of Human Rights

Trans‐ and Gender‐variant Subjects of International Human Rights Law

Bibliographic Data

ID9196902
AuthorsSandra Duffy (0000-0002-2538-6152, European Union, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume84
Issue5
Pages1041-1065
Publication date2021-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Law Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-7961 • E-ISSN: 1468-2230
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2230.12633
OpenAlexW3141683616
LanguageEN
Citations received8

Gendered identities and gender variance have become a regular subject of the discourse of the United Nations human rights protection mechanisms. This article explores the manner in which gender identities are discussed, constructed, and regulated by the international human rights law system. Through use of postcolonial and feminist theoretical lenses, it argues that the emergence of multiple gendered identities into the legal mainstream has required the United Nations human rights bodies to expand their concepts of gender and to develop a new vocabulary and jurisprudence of gender variance. The article examines the language used in the construction of gendered subjects and its relationship to dynamics of state and postcolonial power. It also introduces the concept of the ‘cisgender matrix’ to international human rights law, expressing the hierarchical social privilege given to binary, stable gendered identities over gender‐variant ones

Fundamental rights · Human rights · International human rights law · Jurisprudence · Mainstream · Political science · Privilege (computing) · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Human Rights and Development · Law

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