Blake Delisa

HONORS 231B

March 9th, 2021

To: The Office of Ann Linde

From: The Office of Jorge Maria Londoño

Acting in the professional capacity of the Sweden Co-Chair of Transgender Europe (TGEU), I am

writing to your office on the matter of Swedish foreign policy in the Czech Republic. As you know, TGEU

works under the mission of supporting “adequate health care for trans people that values gender diversity and

thus also influences the rest of society” across Europe, with special attention to the recognition of gender

identity, non-traditional families, and transgender bodily autonomy (TGEU 2021). Therefore, as a

representative of this organization, I request that Sweden allocates funds to the TGEU member NGO of Trans

Fusion, an organization that works to “create administrative procedures that fully respect the unique gender

identity and gender expression of each person, and thus the individual requirements for physical change,”

(Trans Fusion 2016).

In the current day, Sweden is relatively progressive in regards to trans rights, scoring a “B” with

“87%” of the measures of trans rights according to the Franklin and Marshall Global Barometer of Trans

Rights (F&M 2018). Additionally, this score of B indicates excellence compared to the regional average of “C”

and “75%” within the region of Western Europe (F&M 2018). However, a historical lens on Sweden’s trans

policy illustrates another narrative. While being the first nation to “allow transgender people to reassign their

sex legally”, a “strict sterilization” policy associated with this recognition persisted until 2013 and “had

already spread to other countries when they started tackling the same issue,” (M.H. 2017). Sweden thus has a

checkered past with trans issues in which “ Swedish trans* persons chose to wait to undergo the required

sterilization procedure until after they had had children,” a situation associated with “prolonged…exposure to

potential harassment arising from the mismatch between their external gender presentation and their official

identity documents,” (Lee 2015, 140).

More recently, the Swedish government has attempted to make reparations for this violation of trans

rights. In 2013, the requirement for Swedish trans citizens to undergo sterilization to have their gender legally
recognized was removed from Swedish law (Falck et al 2020, 1). Further, with the support and under the

prompting of TGEU, the Swedish government began an initiative in 2016 to “pay economic compensation to

trans victims of forced sterilisation in Sweden,” (TGEU 2016). Alecs Rescher, the co-chair at that time,

deemed such a governmental move a “beacon of hope to trans people across Europe'' while Senior Policy

Officer Richard Kohler called on “24 more states in Europe to follow suit and end forced sterilisation today,”

(TGEU 2016). Currently, many states in Europe maintain archaic trans sterilization laws based on the original

precedent of Sweden’s legal gender recognition. It falls on Sweden in this movement of personal responsibility

to extend their efforts into greater Europe in understanding that the common legal stipulation of forced

sterilization spawned from Swedish law. It is Sweden’s responsibility to support the local NGO Trans Fusion

in the Czech Republic to protect the bodily autonomy of Czech citizens that has been stripped from them based

on Swedish precedents.

Previously, SIDA has advanced the capacities of LGBTI NGOs in partnership with USAID through

the Rainbow Project, an initiative “aimed at developing capacity, inspir[ing] mobilisation and networking and

enhanc[ing] visibility of LGBTI organisations,” (Nilsson and Rothman 2017, 5). Swedish declarations of

policy similarly reflect a commitment to external legal and social protections for disadvantaged populations. In

regards to foreign policy, the feminist foreign policy of Sweden reflects that “striving towards gender equality

is not only a goal in itself but also a precondition for achieving our wider foreign, development, and

security-policy objectives,” a statement that includes transgender women and men in its scope (Nordberg

2015). One future initiative should focus on protecting the equality of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy

for Czech transgender citizens.

In general, the state of LGBTI rights in the Czech Republic exceeds that of other countries in Eastern

Europe significantly, but hypocrisy persists in its treatment of trans citizens as well as legislation regulating

their bodies and health. While not listed as “Protecting” of LGBTI human rights by the F&M Global

Barometer of Gay Rights, the Czech Republic used the falling of the Berlin Wall to “incorporate sexual

orientation into more far‐reaching anti‐discrimination legislation from the late 1990s,” protecting the right to

safety for LGB citizens (Ayoub et al 2020, 3). Moreover, the Czech Republic went on to “bec[o]me the first

country in the region to implement a more comprehensive RP [registered partnership] law” in 2006, despite the
lag of Eastern European countries behind Western and Central countries on the continent (Ayoub et al 2020, 5).

In 2018, a survey by ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association)-Europe found that public sentiment

was in “support for equal marriage at 64%, matching Pew Research Center findings from May 2017,” (ILGA

2018). This support for equal marriage indicates positive public opinion in regards to LGB rights in the

country; however, this figure is a limited indicator. Further, the lack of data for the last two years in the review

due to the COVID 19 pandemic limits understanding of the current public sentiment. Having established

general LGB support within the Czech Republic, hypocrisy exists in the treatment and legal situation of

transgender and/or transsexual citizens as well as LGBTI parents. In regards to recognition of transgender

identity, following Sweden’s example as the “first European country to formally acknowledge transgender

persons’ preferred identity,” the Czech Republic also implemented Sweden’s original caveat of requiring

sex-change surgery and proof of infertility for legal recognition (Dunne 2017, 555). In the Czech Republic,

“requirements for ‘removal of sexual organs and mammary glands’ and the ‘disabling of the reproductive

function’ were explicitly enshrined in national law as part of 2011 and 2014 reforms,” with no change in these

laws since then (Dunne 2017, 556). Under current Czech law, the reproductive rights of LGBTI Czech citizens

are under attack, as well as the right to bodily autonomy and health of trans citizens.

Requiring sex change surgery is a clear violation of Czech trans citizens’ human rights and an affront

to the international and European community. The NGO World Professional Association for Transgender

Health (WPATH), through the lens of the right to determine one’s healthcare, declares that “the WPATH Board

of Directors urges governments and other authoritative bodies to move to eliminate requirements for identity

recognition that require surgical procedures” (Lee 2015, 65). Expanding on this regional force, global norms

also place pressure on the nation’s government to reform its laws. In February of 2013, United Nations Special

Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) issued a report stating under Section 88 that member states should “repeal any

law allowing intrusive and irreversible treatments, including forced genital-normalizing surgery, involuntary

sterilization, [and] unethical experimentation,” (Mendez 2013, 18-19). As such, the Swedish Foreign Ministry

would not act alone or contradict the opinion of the greater European and indeed global community concerned

with the human rights of transgender individuals.

 With the obligation of Sweden as well as its place in the global community in mind, Sweden ought to

support the repeal of sterilization requirements for recognized trans citizens by directly funding the local NGO

Trans Fusion with local fund distributors. Such a plan fits well into the framework of SIDA, entailing a

“‘contribution’... for projects/programmes that are financially supported by Sida'' along the pipeline of funding

utilized by SIDA and Swedish foreign aid systems (SIDA 2021). Funding for advocacy within the Czech

Republic is severely limited without SIDA intervention, amounting to “0.006 % of the state budget” with low

government engagement within the NGO community of the Czech Republic (Mathou 2010, 128). In regards to

Czech LGBTI rights advocacy, “ the enactment of registered partnerships… spelled the end of organized

political activism for the next several years because it split the activist core and failed to engage the

grassroots,” organizing limited local NGO resources into other issues (O’Dwyer 2018, 914). This trend follows

that identified by Currier in which “activists rank problems… [and] ma[k]e strategic choices about the issues

they should tackle” based upon contextual factors. (Currier 2018, 168). In the Czech Republic, this issue

ranking focuses limited NGO advocacy resources on the issue of Romani educational segregation and

systematic discrimination. The brunt of the European Commission’s force has focused on this issue as the

“European Commission initiated an unprecedented infringement procedure against the Czech Republic for

breach of EU anti-discrimination legislation,” and Amnesty International has followed suit with efforts to

promote a new educational organization in place of “tinkering with a flawed system,” (Amnesty International

2015). As such, direct funding into Trans Fusion would focus funds into advocacy for the issue of forced

sterilization, enhancing the capacity of activists to inform Czech citizens on the trans issue of sterilization

“through lectures and informal discussion” as well as campaigning for change with the government through

“strategic litigation” (Trans Fusion 2016). With enhanced funding, NGOs such as Trans Fusion are capable of

amplifying trans voices and “turn[ing] a spotlight on how governments are engaging on human rights issues…

[to] make them more responsive to human rights concerns,” (O’Flaherty 2011, 218). Thus, this avenue would

provide an effective method of making the matter of removing legal requirements for trans sterilization from

Czech law more salient for the Czech government.

In regards to the effects of this policy, the methodology of disbursement allows for reduced tension

with the Czech Republic upon intervention. In situations where the government might not be fully responsive
to issues campaigned in foreign policy, the “best avenue is to invest in local LGBT civil society organizations

while trying to limit the impression of coercive Western imposition,” (Velasco 2020, 130). Speaking in general

terms, “donors, on average, employ bypass tactics to increase the prospect of aid success in the aid-receiving

country,” indicating that this strategy is one already widely adopted by the global community to achieve

specific foreign goals such as removing the trans sterilization requirement (Dietrich 2013, 708). Additionally,

Dietrich expands on this trend, demonstrating that bypass tactics are particularly effective when there is a poor

“record of cooperative relationships between government and local nonstate development actors,” (Dietrich

2013, 700). Based upon previous evidence of limiting government funding of NGOs and the considerable

dissolution of LGBTI advocacy under current Czech policy, bypassing the government for direct funding of

Trans Fusion would be more effective in ensuring these funds actually expand the capacity of Czech activists

to campaign for governmental change. Additionally, this bypass method allows for a hidden diplomacy model

that will reduce any unintended consequences of foreign intervention. Observing the system used by USAID,

the method of funding through partnerships allows for organizations in fear of discrimination based upon

Western European collaboration to receive funds without reporting their source. This is done as the reporting

“could place many human rights defenders at risk” due to counter-culture toward perceived foreign norms

being diffused into a local context (Burack 2018, 116). As well, this distribution method reduces the risk for

relations between Sweden and the Czech Republic due to the hidden nature of the fund allocation, decreasing

the likelihood that Sweden’s intervention is “discursively constructed as a national threat that calls for

defensive regulations against the advocacy of the threatening norm” while also protecting the recipients of

Swedish foreign aid (Nunez-Mietz and Iommi 2017, 196).

An alternative approach to changing the Czech Republic’s policy would call on public action to

pressure the Czech Republic through methods such as economic sanctions or the European Human Rights

Court. The first option represents a tremendous risk for the Swedish economy due to the potential for loss in

imports and exports with another member of the European Union. While the Swedish economy is larger than

that of the Czech Republic, approximately USD 1,384,531,130 of exports are sold to the Czech Republic and

approximately USD 2,657,403,750 of imports are purchased from the Czech Republic (World Bank 2018). A

significant loss of these exports and imports through economic sanctions would decrease the stability of the
Swedish economy and represent losses for many exporting and importing domestic stakeholders. On the front

of international norming, the primary NGOs directly acting include “ILGA-Europe and Transgender Europe”,

both of which have worked to argue that “Czech Republic’s requirements for legal gender recognition violated

the European Social Charter, a Council of Europe treaty focused on social and economic rights” (Knight 2018).

As a consequence, the Committee for the Social Charter, in charge of assessing states’ violations of the charter,

found that “legal requirement for transgender persons in the Czech Republic to undergo medical sterilization to

have their gender identity recognized seriously impacts a person’s health, physical and psychological integrity,

and dignity” (TGEU 2018). This method used by the international NGOs places the Czech Republic under

breach of a treaty agreed upon by the entity of the government, calling for legal reform to ameliorate this

situation and opening conversations on this topic within the governing body of the nation. However, my

organization has found that domestic counter-culture has expressed itself through the “Czech Association of

Sexologists [who] said that castration should remain a requirement in legal gender recognition,” (TGEU 2018).

Despite the decision of the Committee for the Social Charter and the pressure of the foreign governments

involved in that charter, Czech “doctors who call for the forced sterilisation of trans people are considered

experts and will remain gatekeepers” in defiance of international European pressures (TGEU 2018). Therefore,

the method of norming the Czech Republic through international treaties and organizations presents a limited

pathway.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry must fulfill its obligation to the global community and rectify the

mistakes of its past precedents which have diffused across the European continent. Direct funding of Trans

Fusion in the Czech Republic through a SIDA partnership of fund allocation represents the most effective path

to this goal while preserving the safety of local activists and Swedish interests.
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