Teacher ShelleGender identity disorder sufferers
 These developments have promoted public awareness of GID patients. But are they sufficient enough to protect the human rights of patients? The answer is, regrettably, no. In a notable case, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations issued a recommendation earlier this month, based on its own research, concerning what it says is the abuse of the human rights of a prisoner diagnosed with GID. The sufferer, born with a male body, has not undergone gender reassignment surgery to change her registered sex but identifies as a woman. Placed in the Tokyo Detention House and then in Shizuoka Prison over a criminal case, she sought the JFBA’s support, claiming she should be allowed to undergo health checkups and takes baths with the attendance of female guards, not male ones.The detainee also argued she was required to have men’s underwear despite her request for women’s ones, while her hair was cut short like male prisoners. The detainee had been placed in solitary confinement at the Shizuoka facility when the JFBA issued the recommendation. The lawyers’ group considers such treatments as infringing on the detainee’s human rights and recommended the two facilities to treat her as a woman in line with her own sense of gender identity. ‘‘As it is impossible for gender identity disorder sufferers to change their gender awareness, there is no other way to mitigate their suffering other than treating them in accordance with their self-recognition,’’ the JFBA noted in its report. People with GID are allowed to change the way their sex is listed in their family registries if they fulfill several conditions, including the absence of functioning reproductive organs as a result of gender reassignment operations, under the special law. In 2009 alone, 448 people changed their registered sex, according to the statistics of the Supreme Court. On the treatment in question, Maiko Tagusari, a lawyer working as secretary general of the Center for Prisoners’ Rights, a nonprofit organization, said, ‘‘It shows a lack of knowledge and understanding toward gender identity disorder.’‘ source:www.japantoday.com |