Against UN Opinion on Human Rights Finland Continues to Sterilize Transgenders

Trans medical student Sakris Kupila. Photo via Amnesty.org.uk

The cruel and unusual ‘Trans Act’ remains.

The Finnish government has denied changes to reform the Act on Legal Recognition of the Gender of Transsexuals despite recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council. Finnish law currently requires transgender people to be sterilized before legally changing their gender.

Amnesty UK’s Campaigner Rebecca Dallison told Gay Star News: “Despite strong international pressure, Finland has decided to reject recommendations from the Universal periodic review in the UN Human Rights Council to reform the Trans Act. Not only has the Finnish Government chosen to turn its back on trans people, but it has also failed to provide any justification for this regressive decision.”

GSN also contacted the medical student and trans activist leader Sakris Kupila, a 21-year-old medical student. 

“The psychiatric diagnosing process felt like I was handing my dignity, identity, and future over to doctors, nurses and officials that would thoroughly examine me and judge whether or not my sense of self-was real or not,” they said. “The requirement of sterilization is a violation of bodily integrity.”

Kupila ran an Amnesty.org.uk petition that called for changes to trans rights in Finland. The petition closed last Friday with over 16,000 signatures, but Kupila wished it was enough.

“I am disappointed of course, but I am so proud you all stood up with me to give a powerful message to the prime minister, Juha Sipilä: that we’re watching, we will not be ignored and we will not stop fighting for trans rights in Finland.”

Aside from sterilization, trans people need to provide a medical statement certifying they want to permanently belong to the opposite gender and live in that gender role. GSN reports that trans persons must also be medically diagnosed with “transsexualism” and receive extensive mental health screenings.

In April, the European Court of Human Rights ruled forced sterilization was a human rights violation, according to the Windy City Times.

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