Court orders amendment to transsexual's birth certificate

The Civil Court yesterday upheld a constitutional application filed by a transsexual and ordered the Director of Public Registry to amend the birth certificate so as to reflect the change in gender.

The application was filed by Yana Camilleri against the Attorney General and the Director of Public Registry.

Camilleri, who was born George in 1969, had undergone gender realignment surgery so as to become female.

However, the Director of Public Registry had refused to enter a correction on Camilleri's birth certificate so as to reflect the change in gender.

Camilleri claimed that this refusal, coupled with the fact that the law did not provide for the exigencies of transsexuals, created enormous legal and emotional problems for her, and amounted to a violation of her rights to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment and to private and family life.

She requested the court to provide a remedy.

Mr Justice Albert Magri noted that two earlier judgments of the Constitutional Court, delivered in 2001, had upheld similar claims filed by transsexuals, and had concluded that the failure of Maltese law to provide for the exigencies of transsexuals was in violation of their right to privacy.

Both judgments had however dismissed the assertion that such a failure was tantamount to a violation of the right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment.

Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights had also denied that any violation of this right occurred in such cases.

The court found that a violation of the right to privacy had occurred and the Director of Public Registry was ordered to make an annotation in Camilleri's birth certificate so as to show that she was now a woman named Yana.

The annotation was also to declare that the change in gender and name had taken place by means of a court judgment.

The court ordered the Attorney General to bear all the costs of the suit.