| Applicant name | CSATA |
| Applicant type | Natural person |
| Number of applicants | 1 |
| Country | ROMANIA |
| Application no. | 65128/19 |
| Date | 18/04/2023 |
| Judges | Faris Vehabović, President, Branko Lubarda, Ana Maria Guerra Martins |
| Institution | Court |
| Type | Judgment |
| Outcome Art. 8 | Violation |
| Reason | Positive obligation |
| Type of privacy | Private life |
| Keywords | Transgender; official recognition |
| Facts of the case | The applicant is a transgender woman who was born in 1982. In 2016 she applied to the Timișoara District Court seeking authorisation to undergo sex reassignment surgery and to amend her legal gender marker, forename and national identification number in her civil status records. She subsequently withdrew the request concerning the surgery as she no longer wanted to undergo it. The court dismissed the application in full on the ground that the applicant had not undergone and was not planning to undergo sex reassignment surgery. |
| Analysis | As regards the requirement to undergo sex reassignment surgery in order to obtain legal gender recognition, the Court reiterates that it fully accepts that safeguarding the principle of the inalienability of civil status, the consistency and reliability of civil-status records and, more broadly, the need for legal certainty are in the general interest and justify putting in place stringent procedures aimed, in particular, at verifying the underlying motivation for requests for a change of legal identity. At the same time, the rigid reasoning of the authorities placed the applicant, for an unreasonable and continuous period, in an anomalous position in which she experienced feelings of vulnerability, humiliation and anxiety. She faced an insoluble dilemma, being required either to undergo the surgery and waive the full exercise of her right to respect for her physical integrity or to renounce the recognition of her gender identity, which relates to her right to respect for private life. The Court therefore finds that the authorities disregarded the fair balance which has to be struck between the general interest and the interests of the individual. |
| Other Article violation? | No violation 14 ECHR |
| Damage awarded | (a) that the respondent State is to pay the applicant, within three months, the following amounts, to be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of settlement: (i) EUR 7,500 (seven thousand five hundred euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable, in respect of non-pecuniary damage; (ii) EUR 810 (eight hundred and ten euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicant, in respect of costs and expenses; (b) that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amounts at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points; |
| Documents | Judgment |