Eliana Rubashkyn

Biography

Eliana Rubashkyn Eliana Rubashkyn (born 25 June 1988) is a Colombian-born New Zealand pharmacist, chemist, and human rights advocate, known for her work at the intersection of science, public health, and international law. She became the first intersex and transgender person assigned male at birth to be legally recognised as a woman under a mechanism of the United Nations refugee protection system, without undergoing gender-affirming surgery. Her landmark case helped establish precedent for gender identity recognition under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Rubashkyn was detained in Hong Kong International Airport in 2012 after discrepancies between her gender identity and official documents led to her being denied entry. She subsequently spent over a year stateless and held in detention and asylum facilities across...

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