Romania’s refusal to recognise a transgender man’s identity violates his rights, says EU’s top court

On the basis of these documents, the concerned citizen then asked the local authorities in his home country of Romania to register the change on his birth certificate and requested new documents reflecting his change of first name, gender and personal identification number.

The Romanian authorities refused to do so and instead asked him to open separate proceedings in Romania before the national courts to confirm the change of gender.   

The individual therefore opened proceedings before a Bucharest court, which then referred the issue to the EU’s top court, asking whether Romania’s refusal to recognise the UK decision was within EU law and whether Brexit had any impact on the dispute.

The EU’s top court, based in Luxembourg, said Romania’s refusal to recognise the documents and its decision to force the citizen to start a new procedure to change the gender identity already acquired in the UK were unjustified.   

Initiating new proceedings in the country of origin, the ECJ said, would also expose him to the risk that those proceedings would lead ‘to an outcome different from that obtained before the authorities of the member state which lawfully granted that change of first name and gender identity’.   

The fact that the request was made in Romania after the UK exited the bloc was immaterial, the court said.

Separately, in 2021 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Romania breached the rights of two transgender people by not recognising their identity because they had not undergone gender reassignment surgery. 

“This judgement will have an immensely positive impact, increasing legal protection for all trans people in the EU, all the more as certain EU countries like Romania still do not provide a legal framework for legal gender recognition conforming with European Court of Human Rights’ standards,” ILGA-Europe’s Senior Strategic Litigation Officer Marie-Hélène Ludwig said in a statement.

This article was updated to reflect ILGA’s views on the matter.

Source link : https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/10/04/romanias-refusal-to-recognise-a-transgender-mans-identity-violates-his-rights-says-eus-top

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Publish date : 2024-10-04 11:01:21

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