During the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council, ILGA and the Permanent Mission of New Zealand will host a side event discussing the state of global research on trans human rights.

Research and data collection on transgender people has often been done as a subset of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) research, or data findings on sexual orientation taken as indicative of gender identity and gender expression circumstances. Much of this has also been done by academic and research institutions, and governments and LGBT(I) organisations in the global north.

This panel will discuss current research from different sources, critically investigate the approaches to research and data collection on gender identity and gender expression, and evaluate the pros and cons of different approaches and methodologies.

This includes questions about community involvement and ownership, global north versus global south organisations, regional variations, and the question about what areas are prioritised and researched in the first place. How trans research sits within LGBT(I) research, and how the latter’s approach has influenced research outcomes of the former will also be discussed.

The panellists are actively engaged in this work and have come to this from approaches as diverse as desk-based legal research, anti-colonial community-based research, trans specific and LGB-specific. Research projects the panellists are involved in are Transrespect v Transphobia Worldwide (Transgender Europe), Trans Legal Mapping Report (ILGA), State-Sponsored Homophobia report (ILGA) and Criminalisation of Trans People (Human Dignity Trust, upcoming).