Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities shall enjoy legal capacity in all aspects of life. Each person’s self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom. No one shall be forced to undergo medical procedures, including sex reassignment surgery, sterilisation or hormonal therapy, as a requirement for legal recognition of their gender identity. No status, such as marriage or parenthood, may be invoked as such to prevent the legal recognition of person’s identity. No one shall be subjected to pressure to conceal, suppress, or deny their sexual orientation or gender identity. Regional jurisprudence highlights some developments in this regard. The decision of the Pakistani Supreme Court recognizing the eunuch community is at the forefront of developments in this regard. In Mohammad Aslam Khaki vs. S.S.P (Operations) Rawalpindi and others, the Supreme Court held that transgender people enjoy the protections guaranteed under Article 4 (rights of individuals to be dealt with in accordance of law) and Article 9 (security of person) of the Constitution of Pakistan. 70 The Supreme Court subsequently issued directives regarding access to social services, the addition of a ‘third gender’ on national identity cards for transgender people, and the entitlement of transgender people to register as such on the electoral rolls. The Nepali Supreme Court has also commented on the rights of transgender people to recognition before the law, stating that: The fundamental rights comprised under Part III of the Constitution are enforceable fundamental human rights guaranteed to the citizens against the state. For this reason, the fundamental rights stipulated in Part III are the rights similarly vested in the third gender people as human beings . . . people other than ‘men’ and ‘women’ including the people of ‘third gender’ cannot be discriminated on the ground of sexual orientation. The State should recognize the existence of all natural persons including the people of third gender other than the men and women. 71 Advances have also been seen in judicial decisions from India, 72 Philippines 73 and South Korea. 74 In New Zealand courts have recognised the right of individuals to change their legal gender status without undergoing gender reassignment surgery, and further that post operative transsexuals can marry under their reassigned gender status. 75 70 Legal environments, human rights and HIV responses among men who have sex with men and transgender people in Asia and the Pacific: An agenda for action. John Godwin. UNDP, July 2010. 71 Sunil Babu Pant and others v. Nepal Government and others, http://www.gaylawnet.com/laws/cases/PantvNepal.pdf accessed on 26 April 2010. 72 Naz Foundation v. NCT Delhi (2009) 160 DLT 277. See also Siddharth Narrain, Crystallizing Queer Politics: The Naz Foundation Case and its Implications for India's Transgender Communities, 2 NUJS L. Rev. (2009) 455. 73 Republic of the Philippines v. Jennifer B. Cagandahan, G.R. No.166676 (September 12, 2008). 74 In South Korea, the Supreme Court ruled that a person can access identity documents in a gender other than their gender of birth, stating that “gender should be decided by not only physical appearance but also the person’s mentality and psychology, and society’s attitude to that person . . . This means that gender is decided by diverse factors, and that a person’s mental and social gender, which he or she did not recognize at birth, can be found during his or her social life”, (In re Change of Name and Family Register, 2004 Seu 24 (s.Kor., June 22, 2006)). This decision led to the making of the Supreme Court Administrative Guideline No.716 on Family Register (dated September 6, 2006, which now has become No.256). The Guideline, however, states that in order for the change of legal sex to occur, the complete Sex Reassignment Surgery is required, and, neither history of marriage, nor child in marriage should exist. 75 Attorney-General v Otahuhu Family Court [1995] 1 NZLR 603. See also Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995, Part 8 – Certificates, section 64. Birth certificates after sexual assignment or reassignment. ACJ Report: Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 24