PRISM: Human Rights issues relating to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in Aotearoa New Zealand - A report with recommendations 90% 83% 80% 79% 78% 70% 60% 60% 55% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% New Zealand birth certificate Other birth certificate Overseas passport New Zealand passport Driver’s licence FIGURE 5: Percentage of respondents with an incorrect gender marker on identity documents (Source: Counting Ourselves) Yogyakarta Principle 31 states that “Everyone has the right to legal recognition without reference to, or requiring assignment or disclosure of, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.”157 This includes that everyone has the right to obtain identity documents. Such documents should only include information which is relevant, reasonable, and necessary for a legitimate purpose; without such a purpose, States should refrain from collecting information on this issue. The United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has expressed “significant doubts as to the real need for the pervasive exhibition of gender markers in official and nonofficial documentation;” indicating that ending the registration of sex and gender in identity documents, as is already the case with ethnicity and religion, solves the problem of needing to amend them.158 While gendered information is still collected, all people have the right to change that information in identity documents. This process should be quick, accessible, and transparent, and Passports and driver licences The Commission’s Transgender Inquiry in 2006 and 2007 recognised the need for transgender people to have congruent official identification documents.160 The report of the Inquiry stated that “documents that accord with a trans person’s gender identity affirm their dignity and secure participation as equal citizens.” As a result, the Inquiry recommended improving consistency in the policies of government agencies with respect to amending sex details on official documents such as passports, driver licences, and birth certificates. This recommendation was made at a time when amending sex markers on passports and driver’s licenses was much more difficult than it is now. As a direct outcome of the Inquiry, in 2012 the Department of Internal Affairs updated its passport policy to allow a passport holder to choose a sex marker based on self-determination, regardless of the details on their birth certificate. The Yogyakarta Principles plus ten: Additional principles and state obligations on the the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics to complement the Yogyakarta Principles (Geneva, 2017) at Principle 31. 158 Victor Madrigal-Borloz Report to the General Assembly by the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity UN Doc A/73/152 (12 July 2018) at [37]. 159 Victor Madrigal-Borloz Report to the Human Rights Council by the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity UN Doc A/HRC/38/43 (11 May 2018) at [43]. 160 New Zealand Human Rights Commission To Be Who I Am: Report of the Inquiry into Discrimination Experienced by Transgender People (Wellington, 2008) at Chapter 6. 157 30 reflect a person’s self-determined gender identity and gender expression.159