No. 07-00-577/2025-02  Date: 27. 3. 2026.

OPINION

The opinion was issued regarding a complaint by A.A. against the City Administration for General Affairs of the City of Novi Sad due to discrimination based on gender identity. The complaint stated that the complainant is a transgender man who, on August 3, 2024, acquired the legal right to change his name and sex marker in personal documents, and that on August 20, 2024, the Clinical Centre of Serbia sent a request to the Registry Office to carry out the change of data. It was further stated that the Registry Office did not inform him when the request arrived and that he came to the Registry Office after he himself found out that the request had arrived. It was also stated that on November 20, 2024 he received the decision on the change of name, and that he later came to the Registry Office several times because of other procedures before the police administration, and that each time he was persuaded that he was unfairly dissatisfied, that there was a lack of understanding for the suffering he was experiencing daily, and that the female officers said that none of this was their problem, ignoring the fact that he was their party who had come for the seventh time in nine months in order to exercise his right. In the statement of the City Administration for General Affairs of the City of Novi Sad, it was stated that on September 10, 2024 the City Administration received the Certificate of Change of Sex of the University Clinical Centre of Serbia for the complainant, confirming the change of sex from “female” to “male”, and that since the adoption of the regulations in this field in 2018, in the practice of the Registry Office it had never happened that a certificate of change of sex from the competent health institution was delivered in electronic form, with clearly written data and with contact details (telephone number, address) or any data that would enable this authority to notify persons who had changed sex of the change of data in the registers and of the further steps for exercising the right to change their personal name and personal documents. It was also stated that the decision on the change of personal name of the City Administration of November 15, 2024, for A.A. was delivered to the Police Administration in Novi Sad on November 25, 2024. The statement also pointed out that the circumstances that occurred after the completion of the procedure before the Registry Office, concerning the procedure for the deactivation of the old and determination of the new personal identity number and the issuance of new personal documents, in the opinion of this authority, were the consequence of the competent authority’s failure to act in accordance with Article 103 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Law on General Administrative Procedure, which prescribes that the authority is obliged, ex officio and in accordance with the law, to inspect, obtain and process data on facts kept in official records and necessary for decision-making. It was also stated that the City Administration for General Affairs of the City of Novi Sad, Sector for Citizens’ Personal Rights, Registry Office Department, apologizes to the complainant if he experienced any unpleasantness in communication on the premises of this authority, but considers that by acting within the scope of its duties and competences it did not place the party in a less favorable position, that is, did not commit discrimination based on gender identity. The Commissioner considered the subject of the complaint only from the aspect of his competence, that is, whether the City Administration placed the complainant in an unjustifiably less favorable position based on gender identity as a personal characteristic, while the possible existence of irregularities in the conduct of the administrative procedure and the actions of the administrative authority were not considered, given that this falls within the competence of other authorities. During the proceedings, the Commissioner established that the City Administration of the City of Novi Sad received the certificate of change of sex for A.A. on September 10, 2024, and that on September 1,2024, ex officio, it issued the decision on the change of sex marker, as well as that A.A. submitted the request for the change of personal name on October 18, 2024 and that, after obtaining certificates from the competent authorities that there were no legal obstacles to the change of personal name, the City Administration issued the decision on the change of personal name on November 15, 2024, which, after becoming final, was entered into the register of civil status records and delivered ex officio to the Police Administration in Novi Sad on November 25, 2024. Having regard to the above, and upon inspecting the certificate form, it can be concluded that the Registry Office had no possibility to contact the complainant, while by analyzing the chronology of the adoption of the Registry Office decisions (on the change of sex marker and the change of name), it was established that the City Administration for General Affairs of the City of Novi Sad did not delay the said procedures. Regarding the allegations in the complaint that the female officers of the City Administration behaved rudely towards the complainant and did not show empathy for the position in which he found himself as a trans person, it was established that the complaint did not state that the possible rude behavior and behavior without empathy was expressed through comments relating to gender identity or another personal characteristic. In its statement, the Registry Office apologized to the complainant if he experienced any unpleasantness in communication on the premises of this authority, which the Commissioner considers important from the aspect of the conduct of an administrative authority. Based on the above, the Commissioner issued the opinion that, in the procedure concerning the complaint by A.A. against the City Administration for General Affairs of the City of Novi Sad in the procedures for the change of sex marker and the change of personal name, the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination were not violated. Bearing in mind the allegations of the City Administration that since 2018 they have never received from the competent health institution a certificate of change of sex with contact details (telephone number, address) or any data of the person who changed sex that would enable the Registry Office to contact that person, as well as that, upon inspecting the certificate of change of sex form, the Commissioner established that the form contains no field for the contact details of the person who underwent gender reassignment, the Commissioner will consider submitting an initiative to amend the Rulebook on the manner of issuance and the form of the certificate of the competent health institution on change of sex.

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY

Milan Antonijević