On the 31st March 2008, a panel of five judges of the Court's Grand Chamber did not accept the request by Lithuanian Government to refer the case L. v. Lithuania to the Grand Chamber for reconsideration. Ipso facto judgment passed in this case on September 11th, 2007 became final according to the provisions set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Human Rights Convention.
“Decision by the panel sends a strong message to Lithuanian officials that in the State ruled by law it is unacceptable to provide rights that practically are not implementable. L spent a number of years in effort to secure enjoyment of his right to gender reassignment that was earlier provided by Seimas but not secured because of the Parliaments refusal to adopt an implemeting legislation. This has already cost taxpayers and might as well entail further expenditures from the State budget,” said Henrikas Mickevicius, HRMI Executive Director, who represented L in the Court proceedings.
On September 11th, 2007 the Court concluded that there had been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention in respect of L. ECHR decided that in order to meet applicant's claim for pecuniary damages the State should adopt the subsidiary legislation regarding gender reassignment within three months of the judgment becoming final. In the absence of the said subsidiary legislation, Lithuania will have to pay to the applicant EUR 40,000 in pecuniary damage.
See more about the case L v. Lithuania here and here, as well as at the news portals (in Lithuanian) Alfa, Balsas and Delfi, and in Lithuanian National TV news website.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute