Athens, March 12, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Subject: «Hellenic Police and HNDGS ostentatiously ignore even the Ombudsman for the particularly serious issue of the exclusion of trans persons in competitions for the admission of security forces»

The Greek Transgender Support Association (GTSA), is a voluntary non-governmental organization for the rights and freedoms of trans, gender-diverse and LGBTI persons in general, with this press release, denounces the ostentatious refusal of both the Hellenic Police and the Hellenic National Defense General Staff to respond for two and a half years to the unfair exclusion of trans candidates from their admission to the Hellenic Police academies, as well as other security forces.

Specifically, the Greek Transgender Support Association, on June 6, 2018, denounced in the public sphere with a press release [1] a proclamation of the Ministry of Interior and the Hellenic Police Headquarters “for the Admission of Individuals to the Academies of Officers and Constables with the General Examination System of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religions”, where among the reasons for exclusion of candidates, the so-called “gender identity disorder” is mentioned, a concept which:

a)  Has been removed from the World Health Organization’s international ranking list of mental disorders ICD-11, from June 2018 [2],

b) It is in complete contradiction with all the recommendations of international organizations such as the Council of Europe which by Resolution 2048 [2015] calls on the Member States: “6.3.3. amend classifications of diseases used at national level and advocate the modification of international classifications, making sure that transgender people, including children, are not labelled as mentally ill, while ensuring stigma-free access to necessary medical treatment” [3],

c) It is also in complete contradiction with the Resolution of 22.11.2012 of the European Parliament, which in point 94 states [4]: “Deplores that transgender people are still considered mentally ill in a number of Member States; calls on Member States to introduce or review legal gender recognition procedures, on the model of Argentina, and review conditions (including forced sterilisation) set for legal gender recognition; calls on the Commission and the World Health Organisation to withdraw gender identity disorders from the list of mental and behavioural disorders and to ensure a non-pathologising reclassification in the negotiations on the 11th version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11)” [4].

However, in addition to all the above, the exclusion of trans candidates from the academies of the police and other security forces, violates the legislation for the application of equal treatment, Law 4443/2016, Article 3, Paragraph 1β), where it is prohibited for reasons of gender identity unequal treatment in: “access to all types and levels of vocational guidance, apprenticeship, vocational training, retraining and vocational retraining, including the acquisition of practical work experience”. In addition, we must remember that this prohibition has its origin in the Presidential Decree ΠΔ 11/2014 (Government Gazette A’-17).

Based on the fact that the legislation on equal treatment is violated, the GTSA appealed on June 8, 2018 to the Ombudsman, who then sent letters to both the Hellenic Police Headquarters and the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (as this prohibition has its origin in the relevant ΠΔ 11/2014 which determines the criteria of physical fitness serving in the armed forces), emphasizing that:

“[…], The universal exclusion of transgender candidates from police academies, regardless of the above-mentioned individual medical and physical crisis, provided for the other candidates for admission to them, is an unjustified direct discrimination under Article 2 par.2 of Law 4443/2016, while, as mentioned above, new scientific data have emerged, with the approval of ICD-11, based on which trans status is not a psychiatric condition, which must be re-evaluated “.

At the same time, it should be noted that, according to Law 3094/2003 (The Ombudsman and other provisions): a) Article 4, par. 5: “All public services must facilitate the investigation in every way”, b ) Article 4, par.10: “An official or employee who refuses to cooperate with the Ombudsman in order to obstruct or prevent the conduct of an investigation, shall be punished by imprisonment of up to two (2) years”.

Nevertheless, even after the lapse of about two and a half years since June 2018, both the Hellenic Police and the HNDGS ignored the public complaint of the GTSA, as well as of the Ombudsman, although – as we mentioned above – the public services and officials must respond in writing and within a specified time.

The Greek Transgender Support Association (GTSA), publicly denounces the discrediting by Hellenic Police and HNDGS at the expense of the subgroup of trans people, while it will continue to claim in every possible way the equal treatment of all our fellow citizens, including trans people.

THE BOARD OF MEMBERS

GREEK TRANSGENDER SUPPORT ASSOCIATION

79 Sygrou Street, 3rd floor, Athens, 11745

Tel. 210.9210697

Office hours: Monday to Friday

09.00-14.00 & 17.00-20.00

http://tgender.gr – http://www.transgender-association.gr/

contact@tgender.gr – transgender.support.association@gmail.com

[1] Press Release GTSA | 6.6.2018:  https://transgendersupportassociation.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/%ce%b4%ce%b5%ce%bb%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%bf-%cf%84%cf%85%cf%80%ce%bf%cf%85-%ce%b1%cf%80%ce%b1%cf%81%ce%ac%ce%b4%ce%b5%ce%ba%cf%84%ce%b7-%cf%80%cf%81%ce%bf%ce%ba%ce%ae%cf%81%cf%85%ce%be%ce%b7-%ce%b3/

[2] The new classification list ICD-11: https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en.

[3] Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 2048(2015): http://t-zine.gr/psifisma-2048-2015-diakrisis-kata-diemfylikon-stin-evropi/.

[4] Resolution of European Parliament 22.11.2012: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A7-2012-0383+0+DOC+XML+V0//EL.