art. a multimedia project about artists and their right to express their views freely. d w dot com to freedom. this is d w news a live from berlin tonight it's a boy or a girl or neither nor a landmark court ruling means germany could become the first european country to offer a third gender on birth certificates it's being called a small revolution but the court also ruling that today's vote in the area of

gender choices discriminate against intersex people also coming up is it paradise lost or paradise found will the latest mass leak of the financial papers that lead to a crackdown on tax havens will have an exclusive interview with the european union's tax chief pierre moscovici. i bring golf it's good to have you with us in germany could become the first european countries who allow for a third gender on birth certificates the country's top court today ruled that present day laws discriminate against intersex people and those are people who have a mixture of male and female sexual traits the court said that official documents should either recognize a third gender or remove gender entries altogether the change from binary gender

choices to three choices is scheduled to take effect next year. fine you can hardly believe it the years of fighting for a third gender have finally been rewarded and. there are lots of places in society where there's a split between the sexes. so i have to ask myself again and again how do i define myself do i try to fit in or do i trust myself not to do so and how are people going to react and. it's an issue that directly affects vine year and around one hundred sixty thousand other intersex people in germany people who were born with male and female features and whose gender can't be identified and that's where the problem starts so far it's only been possible to enter a male or female on the birth register or leave it open family has campaigned for a third category a third gender like into and diverse the court has opened the door to that although

they've left the exact description open. as a basic personal rights also protect the sexual identity of those people who don't define themselves as male or female. the current law on civil status or infringes on the prohibition of discrimination. just because it's not possible to enter anything other than male or female would have viably he used the court has given lawmakers until the end of december twenty eighth seen to draft new rules. a big day here in germany and to talk about this ruling i'm joined by nick villa he is with trans inter queer that's an in g o that invites germany's supreme court in this case it is good to have you on the show how important is today's court ruling this court rulings crown breaking for non-binary translate into six people in germany but also abroad it as it goes far beyond everything else that is there

regarding the violation of rights of trans and a second non-binary people so it's crucial and deserves a huge respect to the one who has undergone the thing with the federal court of justice and the fact that this is taking place in germany it's not insignificant. this type of ruling has not happened anywhere else in europe what is it about germany and its legal system maybe it society that a wild for today's ruling i would put it the other way around so what's going on in other countries and in germany until today that this happened only today after years of human rights campaign off almost all voluntary working intellects and transfer non-binary organisations and individuals so in the end now that for example the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe for example has promoted to work better on the human rights situation of intersex and trans people

and especially into sex people are non-binary people finally the federal court has pushed it forward why different german government haven't gotten so far until now and now all forest and pushed to go for this is a case really where you have state parliaments and the national parliament not being able to come up with legislation is the courts have had to decide you know we hear that across the world these days with paralysis among lawmakers in judges having to legislate what's going to. change after this ruling because this ruling pertains specifically to birth certificates and this is going to change the options what that parents have or inductors have after a baby is born right but it will also be available for trans and intersects and number of people injuring augur life time to make their generator station change into one that is more appropriate to their gender identity regardless of their sex

character and that's important you say to change as their life progress is because the gender identity that is prescribed to a new board may not necessarily be the correct one for that person when they're in puberty when they become adults right and that's the thing that people really don't talk about in society i mean did you talk to the court about the taboos in society that still exist when you're talking about gender identity being fluid and changing the court has asked several organizations for their statements on this complaint and many organizations have given them to the court so too and to make them understand that the violation of human rights isn't just some off site topic that only has impact on very few people also one point seven percent of people like the council of europe works which does number face does a violation of rights so of course many individuals and organizations take part in

this pushing forward and now finally the federal court has done this important demand when we talk about gender we invariably also talk about sexuality and the taboo to which comes with that in the public what can today's really do to take away the taboo that automatically arises when we talk about things such as gender identity well generate any targets every one of us so everyone has their own. identity they feel very acknowledged off and then there are a few people who aren't who aren't shown as appropriate to their gender so it has a huge impact on maybe on solidarity towards non-binary and trans and intersex people for sure regarding their human rights which is something that also can be promoted now with this law to other countries but back to your question about like germany

and germany being advanced in this case and in other aspects germany is not that much advanced compared to other countries for example the case of intersex babies born and then to undergo unconsented surgeries. that still part of the surgeries without the consent of the child yes there is still legal in germany here and it is in other countries it's not possible anymore so there are other steps for germany to undergo and now it's very important time as well because the next coalition is going to be like. you got together and this demand has huge impact hopefully also on those. you're going to go with. that advised germany supreme court on that one and more ruling today. thank you very much michael. now here are some of the other stories that are making headlines

around the world donald trump is in china for talks with chinese president xi jinping she and his wife gave the u.s. president and first lady a lavish welcome starting with a tour of beijing's forbidden city talks between the leaders will focus on north korea and trade the two nations are expected to sign deals worth nine billion dollars spain's top board has an old catalonia as a declaration of independence calling it illegal this as independent supporters staged a general strike to protest the jailing of several separatist leaders and activists demonstrators blocked roads and commuter trains in the region. well there is new outrage over tax avoidance following the recent paradise papers leak now that you use top politicians are pushing for measures to stop it dangles here with their thank you very much but yes we went straight to the top of his e.u.

commission appear muscovy she says member states can and will do much more to fight tax havens top priority is creation of a blacklist to name and shame jurisdictions that cater to wealthy individuals and yet the e.u. has been working on for two years on similar measures with limited success consensus remains a challenge especially among members with low tax rates of their own the head of the european commission is himself accused of aiding tax avoidance is knocks and bugs prime minister i put it to mr mr musgrave recently that this gives the commission zero credibility in fighting tax dodging. absolutely force this commission has done more in fighting back through the tax evasion than all the commissions in the previous twenty years if you know if you employ you don't think it had waited minutes it's not due to the fact that this or that person ids here due to the fact that we are in the new when the new area new period which is

a period of transparency i have proposed that i am the tax commissioner and i've got full trust of drunken younger i act in these names i have proposed eleven proposals directives among them six have been adopted which is not that easy if you consider what is the rule of unanimity inside the e.u. we have the best three thing ever for a commission chose to commissioners my colleague not going to myself who are really i think a team which is dedicated to fighting the text of massive tax avoidance if not you can see that in two thousand and three he encouraged the amazon to put its tax base in not. i'm talking about the president of the commission and jocko you are president of the commission and this commission we are i can say that quietly but very confident keep the champions of fighting tax fraud and tax evasion we talked

about this is a commission proposal i will mention two other proposals the one is the first one is that i think that the activity of those intermediaries legal advisers. fiscal advisors banks it must be made transparent to the next administration and the third one is that we have already established a country by country reporting this is one of the six directives i mentioned but between tax administrations i would like it to become public i think there is no a position between investment which we want to protect the event you want to look at her and say yes because transparency if you want to see is the only way to tackle with those phenomena is if we can reach our goal but when you are addressing it when you're looking for how will this affect the average person in europe who is watching this right now if you do manage to get what you want and close these tax

loopholes and blacklist these tax havens i think that what we are attending now with those parties papers which is a scandal but probably those practices are mostly legal but they are not moral this cannot be possible why because it exists only because it is even and certainly it is revealed if it is transparent if it is public it is not possible anymore you know all of those people all those structures all those companies all those states which today named and shamed after the brothers' paper if their activity would be immediately made public then they would be much much more for that's why transparency is the massive destruction weapon against tax evasion. against aggressive tax planning and that's why this commission is so so strong on transport the you could commission right and you mentioned the threat the potential threat of sanctions what are we talking about here are we talking about fines directly for

a few who try and squirrel away their money in tax havens overall it's ok because unless there's a significant legal threat they're going to continue to say tax avoidance is a misdemeanor we're not talking about firms we're talking about the states when you have a blacklist of tax even if you're talking about the states or territories we've mentioned some of them getting to the ground but there are those states will be which will be used to denote that we will have a very strong list strong by pleased the sanctions must be linked to our own capacity to their own linkage with the union i would mention for example well create deals or multilateral or bilateral agreements that we've got with them that can be suspended but the best thing should the strongest action is name and shame ok i really mean nobody nobody will like to be there and in one word are we now finally going to see significant change and

cracking down on tax havens under your leadership in this case it's not up to me to decide that you know the commission as a prominent role because we have the monopoly of the initiative and we have taken so many initiatives i mentioned three of them and believe me if they become decisions that would be different but but the ball is in the camp of the member states it's up to them to decide they have to decide they have to deliver and i will have a vision and i really have to deliver but when i hold the end of this year two thousand and seventeen is the year pierre moscovici thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us today. and that's all from us for now thank you very much for watching. the whole g.w. all one hour. for in focus global insights the.