Published on 25 August 2025
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 30821/23
L.K. and Others
against Hungary
lodged on 27 July 2023
communicated on 4 August 2025
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The case concerns the applicants’ complaint about the impossibility to change their gender markers and their names accordingly. The list of applicants is set out in the Appendix.
On 19 May 2020 the Hungarian Parliament adopted amendments to Act no. I of 2010 on the Civil Registration Procedure (hereinafter: “the 2020 amendments”). As a result, section 69/B(1)(b)(be) of the Civil Registration Procedure Act provides that the register of personal identification data shall contain the “sex at birth” of the person concerned which data may not be changed in accordance with section 69/B(3). “Sex at birth” is defined in section 3 (x) of the same Act as “biological sex assigned on the basis of primary sexual characteristics and chromosomes”. The amendments have been in force since 29 May 2020.
On 23 December 2020 amendments to the Hungarian Fundamental Law came into force providing, among other things, for the protection, under Article XVI(1), of the “right of children to a self-identity corresponding to their sex at birth”. According to the explanations to the bill, “sex at birth is an endowment that cannot be changed: people are born male or female”.
In its decision no. 3058/2023. (II. 16.) the Constitutional Court found that the impugned provisions of the 2020 amendments were not in breach of the right to human dignity or the right to respect for private life and accordingly dismissed a judicial motion of the Budapest High Court on this issue. In the meantime, four petitioners filed constitutional complaints with the Constitutional Court arguing that the 2020 amendments ran counter, among other things, to their right to respect for their personal sphere and their human dignity. In its decision no. 3235/2023. (VI. 2.), the Constitutional Court rejected those complaints without any examination of their merits holding that the petitioners had not availed themselves of judicial remedies before filing their complaints.
Relying on Article 8 of the Convention, the applicants complain that they wish to change their gender markers and names in the register of personal identification data in accordance with their gender identity, but they have had no legal avenue at their disposal to do so following the entry into force of the 2020 amendments.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Have the applicants had any effective domestic remedy at their disposal so as to have their gender marker and name changed after 29 May 2020? If so, have the applicants exhausted all effective domestic remedies, as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention?
2. Has there been a violation of the applicants’ right to respect for their private life, contrary to Article 8 of the Convention, in view of the express legislative ban enacted in 2020 on the change of gender markers (see Christine Goodwin v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 28957/95, §§ 71-93, ECHR 2002‑VI, Grant v. the United Kingdom, no. 32570/03, §§ 39-44, ECHR 2006-VII, X and Y v. Romania, nos. 2145/16 and 20607/16, §§ 150‑68, 19 January 2021)?
APPENDIX
Application no. 30821/23
No.
Applicant’s Name
Nationality
1.
L.K.
Hungarian
2.
A.A.
Hungarian
3.
H.A.B.H.
Hungarian
4.
N.B.
Hungarian
5.
L.B.
Hungarian
6.
P.L.C.
Hungarian
7.
B.C.
Hungarian
8.
Z.D.
Hungarian
9.
F.D.
Hungarian
10.
G.D.
Hungarian
11.
L.E.
Hungarian
12.
E.R.E.
Hungarian
13.
B.F.F.
Hungarian
14.
M.F.
Hungarian
15.
L.F.
Hungarian
16.
D.E.G.
Hungarian
17.
K.G.
Hungarian
18.
S.A.C.H.
Hungarian
19.
A.H.
Hungarian
20.
O.H.
Hungarian
21.
Z.J.
Hungarian
22.
K.K.
Hungarian
23.
L.U.K.
Hungarian
24.
L.I.K.
Hungarian
25.
N.K.
Hungarian
26.
V.E.K.
Hungarian
27.
B.A.K.
Hungarian
28.
A.K.
Hungarian
29.
B.L.
Hungarian
30.
K.L.O.
Hungarian
31.
B.L.M.
Hungarian
32.
A.N.
Hungarian
33.
K.O.
Hungarian
34.
A.E.P.
Hungarian
35.
P.P.
Hungarian
36.
E.P.
Hungarian
37.
D.P.
Hungarian
38.
S.P.
Hungarian
39.
L.P.
Hungarian
40.
M.P.
Hungarian
41.
T.R.
Hungarian
42.
B.R.
Hungarian
43.
A.R.
Hungarian
44.
K.V.T.
Hungarian
45.
A.T.
Hungarian
46.
B.T.
Hungarian
47.
H.T.
Hungarian
48.
S.B.T.
Hungarian
49.
N.T.
Hungarian
50.
A.U.
Hungarian
51.
F.I.V.
Hungarian
52.
M.V.
Hungarian
53.
F.A.V.
Hungarian
54.
R.M.W.
Hungarian