Petitioner and/or his representative will have an opportunity to present publicly their arguments inthe case of L against Lithuania. L asserts violations of a number of his rights: right to life, prohibition of torture, right to respect for private life, prohibition of discrimination and right to marriage.
European Court of Human Rights has declared the case L. v. Lithuania admissible and scheduled a public hearing. The decision is quite rare as usually the complaints are being examined and rulings delivered in the course of a written procedure. In the practice of Lithuania this is only the third time when a case is examined through the course of open hearings. The public hearing is set for the October 2006.
L. hasn’t decided if he will attend the hearing yet as this would result in the disclosure of his identity. Currently the personal data of the applicant wishing to complete a gender reassignment surgery are classified in order to protect the applicant from possible negative consequences of publicity. In the ECHR hearing he will be represented by Henrikas Mickevicius, the Executive Director of HRMI.
L.’s application was filled to court in Strasbourg in 2003. The complaint stated that a number of his rights were violated, including the right to life, the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to respect for private life, the right to marriage and prohibition of discrimination. In the absense of legal regulations, petitioner cannot complete gender reassignment procedure and register his male identity. ECHR admitted and will examine and rule on all the claims except for the claim regarding violation of the right to life.
This is the first case of such nature not just from Lithuania, but from the Central and Eastern Europe. A few similar cases previously handled at the European Court of Human Rights, originated from the UK and France.
Supposedly there are about 200 transsexuals in Lithuania. They often find themselves in situations where numerous human rights are not respected. For example, personal identity codes in Lithuania reveal person’s gender, which often cause serious problems for transsexuals as the usage of the codes is widespread.
Read more (in Lithuanian) in the news portals Delfi and Omni.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute