According to international and regional human rights standards, individuals should be able to obtain legal gender recognition through quick, accessible and transparent procedures and in accordance with their own perceptions of gender identity.  States must ensure that individuals can obtain documents reflecting their name and gender identity, without being required to satisfy criteria that in themselves violates their human rights.  

The new provisions of the law contradict Hungary’s international human rights obligations and its Fundamental Law in relation to several rights. Article 33 requires the recording of individuals’ sex by birth in the national registry of birth, marriages and deaths, which cannot be changed later. This means that individuals’ identification documents would contain the same, unchangeable information, preventing transgender and intersex people from registering their names and obtaining associated documents in accordance to their gender identity. These provisions severely violate the right of transgender and intersex people to dignity, their right to privacy and family life, and their right to legal recognition of their gender based on self-determination (see https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur27/2085/2020/en/).

Individuals whose official documents do not reflect their gender identity, name or gender expression will have to disclose that they are transgender every time they produce these documents. In many situations, this is likely to be a daily occurrence. In situations where official documents are required to obtain goods or services – for example, in finding employment, enrolling in education, obtaining housing, or claiming welfare benefits – transgender and intersex individuals will be forced to give up aspects of their right to private lives in order to obtain them.

In Hungary, transgender and intersex people are often subject to discrimination, in particular in employment, education, accessing goods and services, and housing. This new law represents the latest attempt to curtail transgender and intersex people’s rights, and will lead to further discrimination, while attacks and hate crimes against transgender and intersex people are expected to further intensify following the law’s entry into force.