Czech Republic high court opposes forced surgeries for trans people
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The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic has invalidated a statute mandating that transgender individuals undergo surgeries related to sex organs and sterilisation to legally transition. This decision aligns the country with the majority of the European Union (EU) member states.
As ‘LGBTQ Nation’ reports, in a significant 13-2 decision, the 15-member court ruled in favour of a trans man who was assigned female at birth and sought to alter the gender designation on his official documents without the prerequisite of surgical intervention. The court characterised the previous requirement as “unconstitutional,” deeming it “a violation of human dignity,” and stated it conflicted with “the fundamental right of trans people for the protection of their physical integrity in relation to their human dignity,” as per a report by Reuters.
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Originating from Sweden in the 1970s, the surgical requirements stemmed from a biased view that categorised transgender individuals as mentally unfit and incapable of child-rearing, according to The Economist. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report noted that irreversible sterilisations could not be achieved through reversible methods like medication, vasectomy, or tubal ligation. It highlighted that such permanency necessitates the removal of ovaries in transgender men and testes in transgender women. Additionally, HRW identified that the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organisation based in the U.S.A., has been actively supporting such sterilisation and surgical mandates through legal advocacy in European courts.
The Czech court has set a deadline up till 2025 for the parliament to amend the law. However, new stipulations could be introduced, such as requiring transgender individuals to procure expert medical opinions, adhere to a mandatory waiting period, or fill out extra governmental paperwork prior to legally changing their gender.
Currently, the vast majority of EU countries do not impose sterilisation prerequisites on transgender individuals seeking legal gender change. As of July 2023, out of 27 EU member states, 25 provided legal mechanisms for gender recognition; only four of these required sterilisation, a figure reduced to three following the Czech court’s ruling.
In 2013, contexts like these prompted the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to explicitly urge all nations to cease compulsory sterilisations for trans individuals, a fact reported by the Associated Press.
Reflecting on the court's recent decision, Czech Human Rights Commissioner Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková commented with enthusiasm, expressing, “Congratulations to all transgender people in our country. Today is an important milestone on the road to greater dignity and protection of your rights. I am very happy.”
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