Hans Ytterberg:
The subject that we're going to deal with today is an particularly important topic and I think it's very pertinent that we're dealing with it today on the national humans right day, and that is the topic of grave human rights violations on the grounds of gender identity or sexual orientation. The past decade has witnessed a continuous stream of reports of extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, and other gross human rights violations commited against fellow human beings on grounds of their gender identity or sexual orientation, or simply because of the fact that been human rights defenders of the rights of these people. In the year of 2009 unfortunately has been no exception. Throughout the year we've had reports of such grave violations from all the six major world regions of North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Europe. None of us can say that we've come from a country where these problems with very serious grave human rights violations do not occur on a more or less regular basis. So we all have a stake in this issue. These flagrant human rights violations of national human rights law far too often go unpublished, unnotticed, and therefore, also, unpunished. And in fact that we say the phenonemon of impunity is probably the most important element in this lethal coctail of gross human rights violations.
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Hans Ytterberg:
Now on my right-hand side I have Sass Rogando Sasot, who is one of the leading voices of the transgendered rights movement in the phillipes. In 2002 she cofounded the Society of Transsexual Women of the Phillipenes, the first and only transgender support and rights advocacy group in her country. In 2003 and 2004 together with Dr. Sam Winter and Mark King of the university of Hong Kong she did the first comprehensive research work on Phillipino transgender women, which was published in the International Journal of Transgenderism. During the 2007 Manila Pride March she has been named as one of the nine faces of pride.
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Sass Rogando Sasot:
Let me begin by expressing my warmest gratitude to the permanent mission to the united nations of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, and to the coalition of nongoverment organizations defending the rights lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender people. Thank you for making this event possible and for giving us this opportunity to contribute our voices to this ongoing conversation for change. Our esteemed participants, beautiful beings and profound expressions of this universe; a warm vibrant and dignified afternoon to each and every one of you.
Burned at the stake, strangled and hanged, raped and shot and stabbed to death, throats slashed, left to bleed to death. These are some of the ways transgendered people were killed in different parts of the world; different times in the history of our humanity. These are just the tip, the violent tip, of the iceburg of our suffering. I can go on and on reciting a litany of indignity upon indignity, but my time is not enough to name all the acts of atrocious cruelty that transgender people experience.
But what is the point of counting the dead bodies of our fellow human beings, of the rate of how we suffer, and of opposing violence against us? If you don't challenge the root of our oppression? The sincerity of our intention to address the human rights violations against transgender people rests upon the death of our appreciation of human diverity and the breadth of our understanding of why transgender people suffer these indignities. The root of out oppression is the belief that there is only one, and only one, way to be male or female, and this starts at our birth. Upon a brief look at our genitals we are assigned into either male or female. This declaration is more than just a statement of what's between our legs. It is a prescription of how we should live and must live our lives. It is a designation of what we should think about ourselves. The roles we should play, the clothes we should wear, the way we should move, and the people with whom we should have romantic and erotic- romantic relationships. But this belief is so wrong, very wrong, the existence of people whose identities, bodies, and experiences that do no conform to gendered norms is a proof that this belief is wrong. Nonetheless, even though the proof of human diversity is so evident and clear to us, we choose to hang on to our current beliefs about gender. A belief that rejects reality, and forces people to live a lie. This is the belief that leads to attack on our physical and mental integrity, the different forms of discrimination against us, and to our social marginilization. This is the belief that lead Joan of Arc to be burned at the stake because she was crossdressing. This is the belief that motivated the rape and murder of Brandon Teena on December 30- 31st 1993. This is the belief that lead to stabbing to death of Ebru Soykan, a prominent trangender human rights activist in turkey, on March 10th 2009. This is the belief that lead to the arrest of six to seven Phillipino workers in saudi arabia, for crossdressing in June this year. This is the belief that keeps the list of transgender people being harrased, killed, and violated, growing year after year. And it is very unfortunate that our legal systems, religions, and cultures are being used to justify, glorify, and sanctify the violent expressions of this belief. So we question: is human life less precious than this belief? Is our right to life, to dignified existence, to liberty, and pursuit of happiness subservient to gender norms? This doesn't need a complicated answer. You want to be born, to live and die with dig- and with dignity. So- so do we. You want the freedom to express the uniqueness of lifeforce within you. So do we. You want to live with au- authenticity. So do we. Now is the time that we realize that diversity does not diminish our humanity. That respecting diversity does make us less human. That understanding and accepting our differences does not make us cruel. And in fact, history has shown us that denying and rejecting human variability is the one that has led us to inflict indignity upon indignity towards eachother. We are human beings of transgender experience. We are your children, your partners, your friends, your siblings, your students, your teachers, your workers. Your citizens. Let our lives delight in the same freedom of expression you enjoy as you manifest to the outside world your unique and graceful selves. Let us live together in the fertile ground of our common humanity. For this is the ground where religion is not a motivation to hate, but a way to appreciate the profound beauties and mysteries of life. For this is the ground where laws are not tools to eliminate those who are different from us, but are there to facilitate our harmonius relationship with eachother. For this is the ground where culture is not a channel to express the brutality of our limited perception, but a means to express the nobility of our souls. For this is the ground where the promise of the universality of our human rights can be fulfilled. And we will be in this ground if we let the sanity of our desires, the tenacity of our compassion, and above all, the lucidity of our hearts to reign in our lives. Thank you.
[clapping]