In the scope of the current revision process of the diagnostic manuals Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Other Health Problems (ICD), an international trans depathologisation movement has emerged that demands, among other claims, the removal of a diagnostic classification of gender transition processes as a mental disorder. The call for submissions launched by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and World Health Organisation (WHO) seems to provide the opportunity for a participation of civil society in the DSM and ICD revision processes. These developments open up a number of questions for us that will be discussed in this article. We conducted a meta-narrative review to explore the trans depathologisation movement's contribution to the DSM and ICD revision process, uncover evidence of a 'democratised turn' in the process, and any depathologisation proposals implemented in trans healthcare practices, human rights frameworks and legal gender recognition processes. We argue that the trans depathologisation movement have had little impact on medical practices in trans health care. However, there is some movement in local health services towards an informed consent model for limited healthcare interventions. Within some European and South / Central American legal frameworks, the depathologisation movement's demands to free legal gender recognition from medical interventions and examinations have, in different degrees, been incorporated into legal recommendations and enacted in some recent gender recognition laws.

Human rights discourse on the rights of transgender people has to a large extent focused on access to correction of legal gender and medical preconditions for this change. Jurisdictions across the world are now beginning to free legal gender recognition from medical interventions and examinations. State bodies have, however, done little to realise the rights of transgender people to adequate healthcare. A key issue is whether international law obliges states to ensure access to trans-specific healthcare. This article examines the right to healthcare appropriate to transgender persons' needs. Drawing on in-depth interviews with transgender people living in Norway, it investigates how individuals explain their needs for trans-specific healthcare. It shows that Norwegian healthcare practice uses the diagnosis of 'transsexualism' to determine a person's needs for trans-specific healthcare and as such excludes many from receiving the healthcare they need. The article analyses whether trans-specific healthcare falls within the ambit of the right to health under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the right to necessary healthcare under the Norwegian Patients' Rights Act. It concludes that the Norwegian authorities are obliged to provide equal access to adequate trans-specific healthcare to those who need it.

Under Norwegian law, the registration of children at birth is regarded as the minimum guarantee for their enjoyment of children's rights. But how does the legal gender assigned at registration impact on gender non-conforming children's and adolescents' experiences? How does the regulation of gender assignment under Norwegian law chime with the human rights of gender non-conforming children, particularly the right to respect for one's private life and non-discrimination? Are there any possibilities for children to change their legal gender? This article gives voice to the experiences, challenges, and wishes of gender non-conforming children. The aim is to show how legal gender intertwines with feelings of recognition, selfconfidence, self-respect, and self-esteem.

Transgender people’s access to gender-binary facilities has recently become hotly debated. Those opposed argue that giving transgender people access to facilities corresponding to their gender identity creates a safety risk and discomforts others. This article addresses this controversy from the transgender children’s perspectives as reported by their parents. The findings on the arrangement of transgender children’s access to changing rooms in Norwegian schools show to what extent ways of accommodating transgender children’s use of changing and shower facilities at Norwegian schools accord with the right to non-discrimination. It is argued that the gender-binary organisation of facilities and the lack of private curtains in schools create inequality and exclude transgender children.

No abstract