Lithuanian Justice Minister Evelina Dobrovolska signed an order on Friday allowing transgender people to change their names.
The new regulations will be "an important step that will help Lithuania to ensure partial implementation of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued more than a decade ago, as well as the consolidation of human rights standards", the ministry said.
In 2007, Lithuania lost the case at the ECHR over the fact that there was no gender reassignment regulation in the country.
Transgender people will no longer be required to provide medical proof of gender reassignment, but will still need to provide a certificate from a Lithuanian or an EU healthcare establishment on diagnosed “transgenderism”, according to the ministry.
Each case would still need to be approved by the Justice Ministry.
The new regulations will come into force on February 2, 2022.
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