Several European political groups on Tuesday 19 May condemned the Hungarian Parliament’s vote in favour of a legislative amendment, known as Article 33, to replace the modifiable “sex” with the immutable “sex assigned at birth” in official documents.
“In practice Hungary has made legal gender recognition, the process by which trans and intersex people can bring their documents into alignment with their gender identity, impossible”, says the organisation ILGA-Europe.
The Greens/EFA, S&D and Renew Europe, through its President, Dacian Cioloş, denounced a violation of fundamental rights and pledged to continue their fight against this provision.
The Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), Evelyn Regner (S&D, Austria), had already expressed her concerns on this issue on several occasions.
A few days ago, at a press conference (see EUROPE 12488/18), Mrs Regner made specific reference to Article 33, denouncing an “abuse of democracy” on the part of the Hungarian Prime Minister.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, also denounced on Twitter a measure “contrary to the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence” and a “blow to trans people’s human dignity”.
Already at the beginning of the month, the Hungarian Parliament was condemned for opposing the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (see EUROPE 12481/15). (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)