A/HRC/41/45/Add.1 encourages Georgia to take the necessary steps to ascertain the truth surrounding the events, establish responsibilities and take the necessary measures of reparation. C. 1. Discrimination Leave no lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender diverse person behind 64. To date, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse community is not only invisible in mainstream society but also in development strategies, policies, programming and budgeting. There is little knowledge about the community, its size, its vulnerability and its needs. To ensure that the human rights of these populations are anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons and communities must be included in the design, implementation and evaluation of all relevant policies. 65. Without urgent measures to render the community visible and to address violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Georgia will fail to comply with its international human rights law obligations and to deliver on the promise to leave no one behind in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Urgent responses are required from the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government, as well as from non-State actors, such as civil society, faith-based communities, the media and the private sector. 2. Gender identity 66. According to established practice, full sex reassignment surgery preceded by an assessment by psychologists and sexologists and hormonal therapy are a prerequisite for amending gender markers in identity documents. The Independent Expert was shocked to learn that, based on the assessment by psychologists and sexologists, the surgeon decides whether the patient is a “true transsexual”, depending on the patient’s will to undergo full or only partial gender affirmation procedures. The Independent Expert is extremely concerned that such abusive requirements are applied at the discretion of medical professionals who are evidently uneducated on sexual orientation and gender identity. Moreover, he notes that the surgery recommended to “true transsexuals” lead to completely unnecessary mutilation, sterilization, great pain and suffering. 67. Such treatments and procedures can lead to severe and lifelong physical and mental pain and suffering and, if forced, coercive or otherwise involuntary, can violate the right of persons to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Sterilization requirements run counter to respect for bodily integrity, selfdetermination and human dignity, and can cause and perpetuate discrimination against transgender persons. 68. Furthermore, the right to equal recognition before the law is a basic element in a well-functioning framework for protection from arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, as it is well established that in all situations of deprivation of liberty the proper identification of the individual is the first guarantee of State accountability. Without it, trans persons are victims of discrimination in all aspects of their lives, including in employment and with regard to housing and access to social security, and they are socially excluded and subjected to high levels of violence. They may also face restrictions to their right to freedom of movement. For these reasons, the gender recognition system that allows trans persons to change their name and gender markers on identity documents should be a simple administrative process based on the self-determination of the applicant, and it should be accessible and, to the extent possible, free of charge (see A/73/152). 3. Right to privacy and family life 69. In the new Constitution of Georgia, which came into force in December 2018, the previous neutral definition of marriage was replaced with one that recognizes marriage “as a union between a woman and a man”, echoing the long-standing definition of marriage enshrined in article 1106 of the Civil Code. 13