Letter to the President of Poland on Legal Gender Recognition

Andrzej Duda
President of the Republic of Poland
Kancelaria Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
ul. Wiejska 10
00-902 Warszawa

Your Excellency,

We write to urge you to sign into law the Act on Gender Recognition of 10 September 2015. The legislation represents positive progress and will bring Poland more in line with its international human rights obligations and best practices on legal recognition of transgender citizens’ gender.

Poland’s Act on Gender Recognition proposes some important changes, including by defining gender identity as “settled and intense experience of one’s own gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned in a birth record”; making the granting of legal recognition of gender a court procedure; providing for name changes; enumerating the various other documents that the successful applicant is legally entitled to change such as those relevant for “certifying qualifications, education, work experience and state of health of an applicant, including the new personal data”; and name change possibilities for transgender children.

Legal gender should be based on a person’s self-identification. Countries around the world are changing their policies in accordance with this rights-based principle.  With your signature on this Act, Poland has the opportunity to join, and be at the forefront, this growing momentum.

For example, in Denmark^[1] and Argentina^[2], Ireland^[3], and Malta^[4] (following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights^[5]), transgender people can legally self-declare their own gender free of any medical assessment process. Colombia^[6] and Nepal^[7] have also shown progress on legal gender recognition in recent years.

In a January 2015 policy statement, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an international multidisciplinary professional association aimed at promoting evidence-based care, education, research, advocacy, public policy, and respect in transgender health, called on governments “to eliminate unnecessary barriers, and to institute simple and accessible administrative procedures for transgender people to obtain legal recognition of gender, consonant with each individual’s identity, when gender markers on identity documents are considered necessary.”^[8]

The government of Poland is responsible for ensuring that the law makes the distinction between medical processes related to gender transition and legal gender recognition, and in doing so supports both access to care for transgender people and proper education for medical practitioners.

In 2009, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg wrote that it is important that transgender people be treated as “subjects who are responsible for expressing their own health needs.”^[9] Human Rights Watch notes that a crucial step towards allowing this dignified and autonomous expression of health needs is removing medical procedures from the legal gender recognition process.

Poland is on the brink of major changes to uphold the fundamental rights of transgender people. The legislation before you for signature represents a major step forward. It will signal an inclusive and respectful future for transgender people. We urge you to sign it.

Sincerely,

Boris Dittrich
Advocacy Director
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program
Human Rights Watch

Hugh Williamson
Director
Europe and Central Asia Division
Human Rights Watch

CC:

Mr. Dainius Pūras, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Ms. Rita Izsak, Independent Expert on minority issues

Mr. Kishore Singh, Special Rapporteur on the right to education

Mr. David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression

Ms. Emna Aouij, Chair, Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice