The Education Ministry has issued an instruction that people who change their gender have a right to receive certificates and diplomas with the new name.
The Ministry of Science and Education has issued instructions to schools and universities that, at the request of a person who has changed their gender or lives in another gender identity, they must issue a certificate or a diploma with the person’s new name, if the gender or gender identity have been changed after graduation. Some say that the latest instruction represents the promotion of the so-called gender ideology, but the Ministry denies this, reports Večernji List on June 14, 2018.
“In view of the fact that there is an undisputed legal obligation for educational institutions to issue certificates and diplomas with new data at the request of a person who has changed gender or has chosen to live in another gender identity, the Ministry has prepared these instructions in cooperation with the Ministry of Administration,” said the Education Ministry. They pointed out that the instructions were issued following inquiries by several educational institutions and that they refer to the decisions by the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court made the latest decision on this issue in November last year, when it was contacted by N. Z. from Zagreb, to whom the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing did not want to issue a diploma with the new name, although the change of gender and the name have been recorded in the official state registry. The Administrative Court first supported the Faculty, but the Constitutional Court overturned the decision, quoting a case from the European Court of Human Rights, where gender-related issues are considered to be part of a personal life, which enjoys the protection of the constitution.
A similar verdict was made somewhat earlier when the Science Faculty in Zagreb was ordered to issue a diploma with a new name to a person from Kutina, who obtained the degree as a man, but later changed gender.
In 2014, the Constitutional Court ordered the Ministry of Administration to ensure the right for people to have gender changes registered in the official registry. The decision clarified that the law allowed for the registration of changes in gender identity even in those cases where no medical operation had been performed. The court practice binds the Education Ministry, which is the reason why the latest instructions were issued.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Iva Boban Valečić).
