Brussels, 26 October 2022
The European Parliament organises a hearing to discuss how the question of the legal status of transgender persons can be taken out of the medical field.
On Thursday, in the context of the second European Gender Equality Week, MEPs from the Committees on Civil Liberties and Public Health will examine how to remove medical requirements from the procedure aiming at the establishment of the civil status gender of a person – in other words, taking the legal status question out of the medical area. The public hearing aims at addressing the pivotal role of health professionals can have in ensuring that transgender and non-binary persons are not stigmatised and discriminated against in the medical sector, and that they are able to fulfil their right to health by ensuring their access to quality health care.
When: Thursday 27 October 2022, 16:30 – 18:30
Where: European Parliament in Brussels, József Antall building, room 4Q2
You can watch the hearing live and on demand on Parliament’s Multimedia Centre.
Session 1: “Ensuring access to quality health care without discrimination for
transgender and non-binary persons: current standards and next steps”, with
- World Health Organisation – Rodney Kort, Senior Technical Lead on
Gender, Equity and Human Rights (remotely) - European Professional Association for Transgender Health – Iva Zegura,
EPATH Board Member (remotely)
Session 2: “Towards depathologised legal gender recognition: how to ensure the protection of the rights of transgender and non-binary persons?”, with
- Maltese Government – Hon. Rebecca Buttigieg, Parliamentary
Secretary for Reforms and Equality (remotely) - Transgender Europe – Richard Kohler (Advocacy Director)
- European Commission – Silvan Agius, Expert, Commissioner Dalli’s
Cabinet
The full programme, including the list of guest speakers, is available here.
Background
So far, only a very limited number of Member States have introduced Legal Gender Recognition procedures without any medical requirements (Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta). While the removal of gender identity disorder from the list of mental illnesses is recognised as a positive step, several concerns remain with the ICD11 (International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision).