Written declaration No. 549 | Doc. 13265 | 27 June 2013

Failure to implement European Court of Human Rights judgment on access to gender reassignment treatment prolongs inhuman treatment of transgender persons in Lithuania

Signatories: Mr Jonas GUNNARSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Ms Tina ACKETOFT, Sweden, ALDE ; Mr Lennart AXELSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Robert BIEDROŃ, Poland, SOC ; Ms Gülsün BİLGEHAN, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Maria GIANNAKAKI, Greece, NR ; Ms Maria GUZENINA-RICHARDSON, Finland, SOC ; Ms Carina HÄGG, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Håkon HAUGLI, Norway, SOC ; Mr Mogens JENSEN, Denmark, SOC ; Ms Ulrika KARLSSON, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Ms Lone LOKLINDT, Denmark, ALDE ; Ms Kerstin LUNDGREN, Sweden, ALDE ; Ms Carina OHLSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Ms Sandra OSBORNE, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Marietta de POURBAIX-LUNDIN, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Ms Deborah SCHEMBRI, Malta, SOC ; Mr Björn von SYDOW, Sweden, SOC ; Ms Chiora TAKTAKISHVILI, Georgia, ALDE ; Ms Anette TRETTEBERGSTUEN, Norway, SOC

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

In 2007, in L v. Lithuania, the European Court of Human Rights found that Lithuania’s failure since 2001 to implement legislation making possible gender reassignment treatment violated Article 8 of the Convention. It appears that in the intervening six years the Lithuanian authorities have failed to take any concrete steps towards implementation of the judgment. Thus, for 12 years, transgender persons have been unable to undergo gender reassignment treatment in Lithuania, and in consequence, to obtain a change of civil status.

This prolonged and grave interference in the right to private life amounts to inhuman treatment of all transgender persons in Lithuania needing a change of civil status.

On 23 May 2013, in open defiance of the Court’s judgment in L v. Lithuania, the Lithuanian Parliament gave initial support to a proposal that the Civil Code be amended to prohibit gender reassignment surgery.

We call upon the Lithuanian authorities to implement the above judgment of the Court, and on the Committee of Ministers to pursue execution of this judgment urgently, including through transferring the case from the standard to the enhanced monitoring procedure.