Gender Recognition Act review · Judgment 99/2019
Belgian Constitutional Court · 19 June 2019
Belgium’s 2017 legislation allowed people to amend the sex recorded on a birth certificate. But the available entries were male and female, leaving a person with a non-binary identity unable to record an entry corresponding to that identity. The court considered the gap alongside restrictions on further changes.
A right can be unequal in its design
The legislature had chosen self-determination as a guiding principle. Against that aim, the judges found no reasonable justification for excluding non-binary people. They also struck down aspects of the rules that generally made a change irreversible and allowed only one change of first name on this ground. Those restrictions disadvantaged people whose gender identity changes over time.
What the judgment actually changed
The court identified the constitutional defect but left the choice of how to remedy the gap for non-binary people to the legislature. The judgment itself did not create a new register entry that an official could immediately issue. Someone seeking a change today should identify the specific entry or document, obtain the registry’s current requirements and keep any reasoned refusal. A passport, a birth record and a first-name change may call for different steps.
Read judgment 99/2019 in Dutch · Read the court’s French summary
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