Goodwin v United Kingdom
The failure of the United Kingdom to give legal recognition to the acquired gender of a transgender woman breached her rights to respect for private life and to marry.
Facts
Christine Goodwin was a transgender woman who had undergone gender reassignment surgery. She complained that, because her change of gender was not legally recognised, she faced discrimination in employment, in national insurance and in pensions, and was unable to marry a man. The European Court of Human Rights had previously held in a series of cases that the United Kingdom's failure to recognise gender reassignment did not breach the Convention.
Legal principle
The Grand Chamber held unanimously that there had been violations of articles 8 and 12. The court said that it must look at the situation within and outside the contracting states to assess, in the light of present day conditions, what is now the appropriate interpretation of the Convention. The very essence of the Convention is respect for human dignity and freedom, and in the twenty first century the right of transgender people to personal development and to physical and moral security could no longer be regarded as a matter of controversy. The United Kingdom could no longer claim that the matter fell within its margin of appreciation. The decision led to the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Related cases on private and family life (article 8)
- Big Brother Watch v United Kingdom (2021) Application no 58170/13
- Campbell v MGN Ltd [2004] UKHL 22, [2004] 2 AC 457
- Dudgeon v United Kingdom (1982) 4 EHRR 149
- Evans v United Kingdom (2008) 46 EHRR 34
- Hesham Ali v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] UKSC 60, [2016] 1 WLR 4799
- HH v Deputy Prosecutor of the Italian Republic, Genoa [2012] UKSC 25, [2013] 1 AC 338
- Huang v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2007] UKHL 11, [2007] 2 AC 167
- Manchester City Council v Pinnock [2010] UKSC 45, [2011] 2 AC 104
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