States must better protect the rights of trans individuals, said a report released on Thursday by the Council of Europe.
"States have the primary responsibility to lift the barriers trans people are facing in exercising their human rights," Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović said as she released a new report entitled "Human rights and gender identity and expression."
Despite the increased visibility of trans people and the significant progress made across Europe, there are "shockingly high rates of discrimination, violence and insecurity trans people experience in their daily lives," Mijatović said.
Among the key recommendations, the council calls on states to ensure trans individuals "have effective and stigma-free access to trans-specific healthcare services" without having to present a psychological assessment.
In addition, gender identity and gender expression should be explicitly recognized as a "prohibited grounds of discrimination in anti-discrimination legislation," the report said.
Anyone who can credibly demonstrate fear of persecution as a trans person should be able to be recognized as a refugee, according to the Council of Europe. In prisons, the right detention centre should be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
The procedures for legal gender recognition should be carried out much more quickly and transparently and should also be open to minors "with due regard to the child's views, maturity and best interests, and ideally without arbitrary age limits," the commission said.
All people should be able to use sanitation facilities "in a dignified and safe manner, according to their gender identity when these are gender-segregated," the report recommended.
The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 to protect democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe. It is independent of the European Union and has more members than the EU, including almost all European states.