By: Shraddha Dubey, Junior Research Associate, PILPG-NL
As the entire world struggled to sail through the tumultuous sea that is the outbreak of Covid-19, some were equipped with better boats for the journey than others. While governments all around the world have made their best efforts to prepare their citizens to cope with the challenges of Covid-19, the measures undertaken often leave many individuals asking for more. Some of these measures perhaps adopted with positive intentions have caused further hardships to certain sections of the society. This blog seeks to highlight some challenges faced by transgender individuals that have been created and further worsened by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Gender Based Lockdown Measures
Many countries have adopted gender based measures to curtail the spread of Covid 19 which have given rise to numerous challenges. In Peru, gender based quarantine provisions were implemented. However, the provisions included a non-discriminatory clause and President Martin Viscarra gave statements declaring the measures to be trans-inclusive after incidents of harassment of on transgender individuals ensued. Eventually, these measures were removed for being ineffective. In Bogota, Colombia, gender based quarantine rules were in place from April 13th until May 11th, but they included trans-sensitive provisions and allow transgender people to comply with the rules according to their chosen gender identity. Following much criticism, the Mayor of Bogotá decided to instate measures based on the last digits of the ID number.
Similarly, Panama implemented a gender-based quarantine schedule to curb the spread of Covid-19. This schedule requires men and women to remain quarantined on alternate days, disregarding the existence of transgender individuals. Numerous incidents of harassment of transgender individuals by police and security officers while accessing essential commodities have been reported. This discrimination was experienced irrespective of whether they adhered to the schedule based on the sex mentioned in their national identification cards or based on their chosen gender identity. These measures violate the human rights of transgender individuals including their right to identity and right to equal treatment. While governments are empowered to legally restrict some rights like that of freedom of movement in their response to the Covid-19 emergency, these restrictions must be consistent with fundamental principles of non-discrimination. After over a month of implementing the gender-based quarantine schedule, the Panama government expressed its commitment to prevent discrimination faced by transgender people. It gave instructions to security agencies to not discriminate against transgender people while enforcing Covid-19 restrictions.
All the aforementioned policies of gender segregation disregard the existence of non-binary people who may experience hardships because they do not identify with either of the genders specified in the quarantine schedules. Above all, these gender based segregation rules inevitably reiterate biological determination of gender and sexuality and impose a binary notion of gender.
Use of Emergency Powers to Restrict Gender Recognition
Further away from Latin America, transgender individuals are facing other challenges in Hungary. The incumbent government in Hungary has successfully passed a law to end the legal recognition of transgender individuals by defining gender as ‘biological sex’. This makes it impossible for people to legally change their gender. Hungary’s action of adopting legislation that allows its Prime Minister to rule by decree indefinitely has been widely criticised. This is particularly so because the sitting Parliament is focusing on other issues like this new legislation instead of dealing with Covid-19. This law makes lives of transgender individuals prone to risk of discrimination, harassment and even violence during the time of the pandemic when they need to use identity documents on a regular basis to access essential services.
The bill stands in clear contravention to the European Convention of Human Rights. In its previous case laws, the European Court of Human Rights has held that gender identity is a basic element of self determination. It also declared that refusal to legally change an individual's gender identity could amount to discrimination and violate the right to respect for private lives’.
Exacerbation of Access to Healthcare Issues
Besides these unique experiences and challenges faced by transgender individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic in different parts of the world, a common struggle of the community is with regards to health care which has worsened during the pandemic. Access to health care services by transgender individuals is often marred with legal obstacles, violence combined with social stigma and discrimination. This is often evidenced in reluctance of medical professional to engage with transgender individuals. This puts transgender individuals at a particularly higher risk of mortality due to difficulty in accessing treatment. The present circumstances have also resulted in poor rates of access to health care services related to HIV treatment. The increased prevalence of HIV amongst transgender population with compromised access to healthcare, increases their vulnerability to the disease of Covid-19. Family rejection along with absence of employment and social protection further compounds the problem of their vulnerability to the disease. The lack of provisions to address these challenges violates the human rights of right to availability and accessibility to health care of transgender individuals.
In Egypt, this problem is likely to manifest itself by creating a situation where transgender individuals are too afraid to undertake treatment or seek HIV medication. In response to the spread of Covid-19, Egyption authorities designated the country’s fever hospitals as testing centres for Covid-19. These fever hospitals are the only centers where people living with HIV can get medication. Their designation as testing centres for Covid 19 may cause hardships to those in need for HIV medication, since they are afraid to go to hospitals for the fear of catching the disease. HIV patients have not been assigned alternate treatment centres. Additionally, issues of gender identity may also cause difficulties for the transgender community in accessing Covid 19 relief measures due to the absence of official identity cards corresponding to the gender of their choice.
Conclusion
As the world continues to cope with the unprecedented threats that Covid 19 brings, we are constantly reminded that the experience of the pandemic is not uniform for everyone. As demonstrated above, the experience is particularly difficult for transgender individuals who face increased discrimination and challenges to their existence due to the insufficiently designed measures adopted by government authorities. As the celebrations of the Pride month have come to an end amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be interesting to see whether measures adopted to curtail the pandemic will be more mindful of the transgender experience.