COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Finland will allow transgender people to change gender at their own request and without sterilization, confirmed new legislation signed into law by Finland’s president on Friday.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that making sterilization mandatory in order to change the gender on their birth certificate is a human rights violation.
The new Finnish law allows people over the age of 18 to legally determine their gender through a self-declaration form, and aims to strengthen the protection of the right to self-determination and reduce discrimination, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said. . .
Medical examinations and sterilization are no longer required to legally change gender, it added.
On Friday, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto ratified the new legislation, which will come into force on April 3.
According to Transgender Europe (TGEU), the Czech Republic, Latvia and Romania currently require individuals to undergo sterilization before they can legally change gender.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Anne Kauranen and Christina Fincher)
