B v France (Application No. 13343/87)

In brief

The European Court of Human Rights held that France was in breach of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) on the applicant's daily situation taken as a whole: the refusal to update her civil-status record, the refusal of a change of forenames, and documents disclosing her registered sex (paras 55, 58, 62–63). The choice of remedy was left to France; the Court did not hold that the birth certificate had to be amended. The Court held the inconveniences arising from documents serious enough to count under Article 8 and found the applicant daily in a situation incompatible with respect for her private life, so that a fair balance had not been struck despite the margin of appreciation (paras 44, 59–63); the examples of employment records and banking come from the applicant's submissions, which the Court accepted in general terms. The first trans-positive Article 8 outcome at Strasbourg.

Key provisions

• Article 8 ECHR — civil-status registration where daily difficulties arise : On the cumulative French factors (civil-status record, forenames, documents disclosing registered sex), the applicant was daily in a situation incompatible with Article 8. The Court laid down no general rule: it said the requirements of Article 8 vary from State to State and left the remedy to France without requiring amendment of any particular document (paras 44, 48, 51, 63).

When relevant

When tracing the historical development of ECHR jurisprudence on legal gender recognition. When a respondent argues that ECHR protection of trans applicants is a recent development.