PACE calls upon Lithuania to reject the proposal of gender reassignment ban

On 5th of October a Written Declaration on access to gender reassignment treatment in Lithuania was tabled in the current session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The document refers to the proposal of the amendment to the Civil Code prohibiting gender reassignment surgery. The legislative initiative is included in the recently adopted Lithuanian Parliament’s autumn agenda.
In the Written Declaration it has been stressed that the proposal is an explicit infringement of the fundamental human rights contradicting the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights which includes the right to sexual self-determination, as well as being at variance with the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Written Declaration was signed by 21 members from Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and UK. The signatories called upon “the Lithuanian government and members of Lithuania’s delegation to the Assembly to work to ensure rejection of this proposal”.