Slovakia revokes gender reassignment guidelines

1 year ago 39

Slovakia’s Health Ministry revoked a document that gave guidance on how to carry out gender reassignment procedures, stoking fears that health professionals may return to past practices of forced castration and sterilisation.

The decision was taken on the request of the Slovak National Party “to declare the stability of the governing coalition”, said Health Minister from Hlas Zuzana Dolinková.

“It can be expected that after the abolition of the professional guidelines, the practice of forced castration and sterilisation procedures will reappear in Slovakia as a condition for either legal or medical transition,” Zara Kromková, transgender rights expert from the NGO Sapling, said in reference to a practice which the European Court of Human Rights condemned in 2017 case.

The issue will be “comprehensively and professionally” addressed as part of the adoption of the new international classification of diseases, Dolinková added.

But the ministry’s move is in “stark contrast” to international human rights obligations, according to Lucia Poláková, MP for Progressive Slovakia, who said she would ask the minister how she intended to ensure a “respectful transition” in line with such obligations.

The guidelines were one of the demands of the Our Life Is At Stake initiative, which called for more rights for LGBTQ+ people after two people were shot dead outside a gay bar in Bratislava last year.

Transgender activist Martina Bednár says there is “no reason” to revoke the guidelines and that Slovakia should move towards an even more progressive approach which does not require a doctor’s approval before seeking gender reassignment. Progressive Slovakia campaigned on gender reassignment based on self-identification similar to the proposal the German government presented before the summer.

But in Slovakia, the opposition Christian Union has already tabled a motion to reform the law on national identification numbers, which would only allow legal gender reassignment based on ‘genetic testing’, effectively banning gender reassignment altogether.

While in opposition, the Christian Union says the law has a “real shot of being approved” as it was supported by now-coalition MPs from Smer and the Nationalists in the previous parliamentary term.

(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)