gender, age, nationality, profession, political opinion, religious affiliation and social origin. Minority groups therefore often face the cumulative effects of discrimination on a variety of grounds. This is often the case for persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, where the impact of discrimination is felt more acutely when experienced in association with other forms of this form of discrimination or exclusion. Annex 1 below provides a table listing the coverage of anti-discrimination laws in each State. TOR 3 – Recognition of change of gender identity Term of reference 3 asks the ACJ to consider whether, and in what respects, that State's laws enable the official recognition of changes of gender identity from that assigned to a person at birth and the consistency of those laws with international human rights law. – Introduction The definition of ‘gender identity’ contained in the preamble of the Yogyakarta Principles has been endorsed and utilised internationally, regionally and domestically. It provides as follows: ‘Gender Identity’ refers to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means) and other expressions of gender, including dress, speech and mannerisms. Article 16 of the ICCPR guarantees the basic human right to be legally recognized as a person before the law. Such recognition is fundamental to accessing the range of rights and entitlements guaranteed by law with legal commentators noting that: if one’s humanity is not legally recognized, one will lose legal recognition of, and therefore be effectively denied one’s other human rights. For example, Jews in Nazi Germany were deprived of legal recognition; this denial was a precursor to denial of all of their other human rights. Article 16 is a non-derogable right. 68 One of the key issues faced by the transgender community in particular is the lack of legal recognition of their chosen gender, including a third gender. The failure to facilitate and formally recognize change of gender means that transgender persons are required to formally retain the gender assigned at birth, notwithstanding personally having transitioned to another gender. The ACJ is of the view that the denial of recognition of changes to one’s gender identity is in breach of international human rights law. – Advances The Yogyakarta Principles considered the application of Article 16 of the ICCPR to gender identity in Principle 3, 69 which states that: 68 Sarah Joseph, Jenny Shultz and Melissa Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Oxford University Press, New York, 2005. p.680. 69 Yogyakarta Principles. Available at: www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ Last accessed 14 June 2010. ACJ Report: Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 23