ACT No. XX of 2015 AN ACT to amend the Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act, Cap. 540, and for any other matter consequential or ancillary thereto.

I assent.

M ARIE L OUISE

(L.S.)

C OLEIRO P RECA

President

14th July, 2015

ACT No. XX of 2015

AN ACT to amend the Gender Identity, Gender Expression and

Sex Characteristics Act, Cap. 540, and for any other matter

consequential or ancillary thereto.

BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parliament

assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:-

The short title of this Act is the Gender Identity, Gender Short title.

Expression and Sex Characteristics Act and other laws (Amendment)

Act, 2015.

Part I

This Part amends the Gender Identity, Gender Expression Amendment of

and Sex Characteristics Act, and it shall be read and construed as one the

Identity, Gender

with the Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Expression

Sex

Act, hereinafter in this Part referred to as "the principal Act".

Characteristics

Act.

Article 4 of the principal Act shall be amended as follows

Amendment of

article 4 of the

principal Act.

(a)

sub-article (1) thereof shall be substituted by the

following

"(1) It shall be the right of every person who

is a Maltese citizen to request the Director to

change the recorded gender and, or first name, if

the person so wishes to change the first name, in

order to reflect that person’s self determined

gender identity.";

(b) sub-article (2) thereof shall be substituted by the

following

"(2) The request shall be made by means of a

note of registration published in accordance with

article 5(3).";

(c)

paragraphs (b) and (c) of sub-article (6) thereof shall

be renumbered as paragraphs (c) and (d); and

(d) immediately after paragraph (a) of sub-article (6)

thereof, there shall be added the following new paragraph

"(b) Every person who has made use of the

procedure in accordance with article 257 of the

Civil Code and to whom a birth certificate has been

issued in accordance with article 257C of the said

Code shall be entitled also to demand the issue of

his or her complete birth certificate which results

from these annotations and there shall be indicated

on the same certificate the annotations that were

made by virtue of the court judgment given in

accordance with the provisions of article 257 of the

said Code, without the details of the specific

annotations.".

Immediately after article 4 of the principal Act there shall

be added the following new article

" Change of

(1)The Court which would have

gender identity

issued the court decree of adoption may, on an

of adopted

application of an adopting person in the case of a

persons.

minor or an adopted person, amend the decree

by changing the gender of the person and the

first name if the person chooses to change his

first name; and when such decree is so amended,

the Court Registrar shall see that the amendment

is communicated to the Director within fifteen

days from the delivery of such decree; and every

correction or addition in the Register of Adopted

Persons or the deletion of the registration marker

on the register of acts of birth or the Register of

Adopted Persons that is needed shall be made in

that manner

Provided that before the end of the

fifteen days from the award of the amending

decree, the adopted person shall make a public

declaratory act in accordance with article 5 that

reflects the changes ordered in the Court decree.

(2) When the adoption decree is amended

every authenticated copy of the relative

registration in the Register of Adopted Persons

that can be issued by virtue of article 269(5) of

the Civil Code shall be a copy of the registration

so amended, without the reproduction of any

note or marker of the amendment or something

which has been deleted by virtue of such power;

and every authentic copy of registration in any

registry that is a registration the marker of which

has been deleted shall be considered as an exact

copy only if the marker and also the deletion are

not shown therein.".

In sub-article (1) of article 10 of the principal Act, for the Amendment of

words "which need to be amended." there shall be substituted the article

principal Act.

words "which need to be amended:", and immediately thereafter there

shall be added the following new proviso

"Provided that the person shall be entitled to demand to be

given the complete certificate of the civil status acts resulting

from these annotations and there shall be indicated on the same

acts the annotations made by virtue of this Act, without the

details of the specific annotations.".

Part II

This Part amends the Civil Code and it shall be read and Amendments to

construed as one with the Civil Code, hereinafter in this Part referred the

to as "the Code".

Paragraph (e) of article 278 of the Code shall be Amendment of

article 278 of

substituted by the following

the Code.

"(e) the name, surname, a legally valid identification

document, age, place of birth and residence of the father or

fathers of the child, the mother or mothers, and the person

making the declaration;".

Paragraph (d) of article 301 of the Code shall be Amendment of

article 301 of

substituted by the following

the Code.

"(d) the name, surname of the man or woman, if the dead

person was married, in a civil union, or a widow or widower;".

Passed by the House of Representatives at Sitting No. 284 of the

6th July, 2015.

Ċ ENSU G ALEA

Deputy Speaker

R AYMOND S CICLUNA

Clerk of the House of Representatives

€0.54