11 Dec The Office for Management of Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages Continues to Wreak Havoc on the Life of X and Degrade the European Court of Human Rights
The Coalition MARGINS is outraged to inform that the Ministry of Justice – Office for Management of Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages – regional department Skopje, has once again issued a decision to the person X, in which the Office is proclaiming itself not competent to change the sex marker in the Birth Registers, which in itself is a violation of the ruling against Macedonia reached by the European Court of Human Rights.
We would like to remind that, although in 2011 the transgender person X was granted approval from the Ministry of Interior to change the name and surname in his personal documents, the Office for Management of Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages denied his request for changing the sex marker and the personal citizen identification number. Since 2011, the case has been examined three times by the Administrative Court, whereupon the Administrative court on two occasions affirmed the transgender person’s appeal and obliged the Office to adopt a lawful decision founded on the domestic legislation and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, i.e. the Ruling in the Case “X vs. North Macedonia.”
The Office continues to proclaim itself not competent, contrary to the decision of the State Commission for deciding in administrative procedures and labour procedures in second instance, which confirmed that the competence to act in this specific case falls on the Office, particularly considering that the Office has made the aforementioned changes in THREE other cases so far.
On the basis of the lawsuit filed by the Coalition’s legal team and the person X, in January this year the European Court of Human Rights reached a ruling in favour of the person X and found a violation of the right to private life. The Office for Management of Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages, within the Ministry of Justice, was found responsible for the violation since it had issued random decisions to requests for changing the personal data.
In June 2019, the Government obliged the Office to act in accordance with the Ruling of the ECHR and issue a positive decision for allowing a change in the sex marker as soon as possible.
Apparently, Mr Jetmir Feta and his team disagree with this ruling, or perhaps the support of a certain political party allows them to act as gods and, despite the fact that the ECHR found a violation of X’s rights, refuse to enforce the ruling. By claiming not to be competent to act in this case, the Office disregards the ECHR, ridicules the Government and the Administrative Court and violates the principle of the rule of law, creating legal uncertainty.
The Office, i.e. Mr Jetmir Feta is directly responsible for the damages suffered by the person X and continues to disrupt his daily life. As result of such random decision-making practiced by this Kafkaesque administration, the person X cannot find employment and earn a living without revealing his gender identity and suffers long-term damages; the person X cannot travel beyond the state border, cannot be the recipient of, without fear and risking insults and condemnation, services in different institutions, cannot move about freely and equally as every citizen of this supposedly democratic country.
Consequently, the Coalition MARGINS demands urgent and irrevocable change of this institution’s management, and breaking the silence and tolerance of such individuals who encroach the legal system solely as a result of the bargaining between the political parties – members of the coalition government.
Obviously, the management of the Office has no intention to solve the case of X, hence we consider as hypocritical the decision of the State Commission for deciding in administrative procedures and labour procedures in second instance. Despite X’s request from the Commission to decide on the merits and oblige the Office to change the sex marker, this Commission returned the case back to the Office, entitling it to make the decision.
In the meantime, the Coalition will inform the international public, the Council of Europe and all other international organizations for human rights protection, of the continuous practice to mock justice in the state and disrespect rulings and recommendations issued by the European Court of Human Rights.