Colombia’s Registry Guarantees the Right to Identification with a Differential Approach

Between June 1, 2015, and May 31, 2026, a total of 9,505 transgender, non-binary, and T-marker individuals in Colombia updated their identity documents. This is the result of measures implemented to facilitate the updating of the sex component in civil registry records, identity cards, and citizenship identification cards.

The purpose is to guarantee the right to identification and provide dignified and respectful service to transgender and non-binary individuals.

To achieve this objective, the National Civil Registry has implemented various strategies, including strengthening the integrated civil registry and identification system, conducting identification campaigns, developing protocols for serving this population, and training officials in service delivery and customer assistance with a differential approach.

Extensive educational outreach and international support

According to the latest figures released by the agency, of the 9,505 people who updated their documents, 6,248 were transgender women, 3,004 were transgender men, 247 were non-binary individuals, and six were individuals with the T marker.

The National Civil Registry has brought the right to identification closer to this population through civil registration and identification campaigns carried out under the projects Transidentifiquemonos by the GAAT Foundation (Action and Support Group for Transgender People) and Reafirmate con el Chuchu de la Cedula by the Bogota Secretariat of Social Integration.

Likewise, the agency has coordinated actions with local governments and civil society organizations to expand access to this right.

The National Civil Registry developed various educational materials aimed at strengthening the right to identification for transgender and non-binary individuals within the framework of the IdentidadES project, carried out with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), through the Program for Universalization of Civil Identity in the Americas (PUICA) of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Among these educational materials are the Guide for Serving Transgender and Non-Binary Individuals in Registration and Identification Processes and the booklet Civil Registration and Identification Procedures as a Guarantee of Gender Identity Recognition.

In addition, it has conducted training sessions on service delivery and assistance for people with diverse gender identities aimed at officials from civil registry offices in the capital district and the country’s 32 departments, Colombian consular officials in 20 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, as well as representatives of notary offices and civil society organizations. During the first half of 2026, a total of 1,167 people participated in these educational sessions.

Right to identification for transgender and non-binary individuals

At the Subregional Workshop for the Recognition of Gender Identity, held on July 28 and 29 in Bogota, the OAS, through the Program for Universalization of Civil Identity in the Americas (PUICA), recognized the National Civil Registry as one of the institutions that has made the greatest progress in implementing measures to guarantee the right to identification for transgender and non-binary individuals.

In electoral matters, the National Civil Registry implemented the Trans Voting Protocol with the purpose of establishing guidelines for the proper treatment of transgender individuals during elections by all participants in the electoral process and, in doing so, helping eliminate the barriers this population may face in exercising their fundamental and constitutional right to vote and to be elected.

This protocol is presented during training sessions for poll workers, polling station delegates, justice tables, and law enforcement personnel, and is displayed at the entrance of every polling station installed by the National Civil Registry for the different electoral processes.

In November 2025, and to guarantee the right to identification for non-binary and transgender individuals, the National Civil Registry strengthened the integrated civil registry and identification system by including the categories “non-binary” (NB) and “trans” (T) in the “sex” field of civil registry records, identity cards, and yellow citizenship identification cards with holograms and digital versions, both in their physical format and on mobile devices.

Since 2024, the National Civil Registry has begun implementing various contractual and technical measures aimed at incorporating the “NB” and “T” components into the “sex” field of civil registry records and identity documents.