02 Oct A Transgender Woman Wins a Case in the Macedonian Administrative Court
A change in the public registry data, i.e. the sex marker and the citizen’s personal identification number is the result of the lawsuit filed by a transgender woman, as was announced today during a public session at the Administrative Court.
The procedure, initiated by the Coalition Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities, has been ongoing from 2014 because the Office for Management of Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths rejected the requests without a reasonable explanation. In the meantime, the transgender woman faced daily problems in the attempt to realize her rights. The non-uniformity of the data in her identity card and name and surname led to unpleasant and humiliating circumstances in different institutions, during which she was forced to constantly explain her identity in the presence of third parties unknown to her. Some of those instances were during a doctor’s visit, crossing the state border, in the bank, public transport etc.
Transgender people who have still not succeeded in changing their identification documents face daily humiliation, shame and fear in cases when inspection of an identification document is necessary.
“The court’s ruling will encourage transgender people to initiate the procedure for legal gender recognition,” stated Natasha Boshkova, legal adviser at the Coalition and the lawyer representing the transgender woman in front of the Administrative Court in the past two years. Furthermore, she calls upon the Office for Management of Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths to immediately implement the ruling and introduce the changes in the person’s public registry data. “However, it is also crucial that the Office grants current and future requests submitted by transgender people in order to avoid lengthy procedures and wandering through the legal labyrinths,” added Boshkova.
Twenty transgender people have addressed the Coalition with this issue, however only several decided to initiate the procedure. There are six more ongoing procedures in front of institutions and courts, as well as the European Court of Human Rights. Some of the court procedures initiated as far as 2001 remain pending.
Contact person:
Natasha Boshkova
+ 389 75 200 805