The UN Human Rights Chief Has Written to São Bento Asking It to Drop Three Gender-Identity Bills, and Two of the Three Parties Refused the Same Day

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has written to the President of Portugal's Parliament asking that three bills on gender identity be withdrawn. The letter, signed by Volker Türk and addressed to José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, went to São Bento on Tuesday and became public on Wednesday. Within hours, two of the three parties behind the bills said they would not move.

The bills belong to the PSD, Chega and the CDS. All three passed a first reading in March and are now in committee, the stage where a text is settled clause by clause. What they share is one change: reintroducing compulsory medical validation before a person can alter their name and registered sex in the civil registry.

What the current law says, and what would change

Since 2018, Portugal has run one of Europe's more permissive regimes. Under Lei n.º 38/2018, an adult of 18 or over can change name and registered sex through an administrative act at a conservatória, with no medical report required. Applicants aged 16 and 17 need parental authorisation and a report confirming the decision is an informed one.

The three bills would require a report signed by a doctor and, in some versions, a psychologist, for applicants of every age. Chega's text goes furthest: it would revoke the 2018 law outright, uses the phrase "transtorno de identidade de género" (gender identity disorder), and would prohibit hormonal treatment and puberty blockers for minors.

The UN's argument

Türk's assessment is that the bills, as drafted, risk placing Portugal in breach of obligations it has already accepted. He names four instruments: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The central objection is procedural rather than moral. Legal recognition of gender identity, his office argues, should rest on self-determination through a "simple administrative procedure" that does not oblige applicants to produce medical certification. Requiring a doctor's sign-off, the analysis concludes, risks "re-pathologising gender identity" and damaging rights to privacy and autonomy. On the Chega text, the office warns that importing clinical-disorder vocabulary back into national law can itself stigmatise.

If the bills are not withdrawn, Türk asks that they be revised after "transparent and inclusive consultations".

How the letter came about, and what happened next

The intervention did not arrive unprompted. It follows a complaint lodged with the United Nations by Bloco de Esquerda MP Fabian Figueiredo and BE MEP Catarina Martins over the prospect of the self-determination law being reversed.

The replies were quick. Chega's leader André Ventura said the UN does not decide what Portugal's Parliament approves. The CDS called the letter unacceptable interference in a national legislative process and confirmed it would keep its bill. Figueiredo pressed the PSD to break with what he called an agenda copied from Chega, noting that the PSD holds both the prime minister's office and the foreign affairs portfolio.

This is not the first warning the bills have drawn. In April, the government's own equality body called the proposed rollback a significant regression. In March 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that member states must recognise transgender identity documents issued elsewhere in the Union. Separately, the authors of a petition against the changes have asked President António José Seguro for an audience.

What this means for you

• If you are planning a registry change: the 2018 procedure is still the law today. Nothing changes until a final vote passes and the text is promulgated and published in the Diário da República.
• If you moved here for the legal framework: committee stage is where the detail is decided, and committee texts can be softened as easily as hardened. The medical-report clause is the one to watch.
• If you hold documents issued in another EU state: the Luxembourg ruling on cross-border recognition sits above whatever Portugal legislates domestically.
• If you need to update records after a change: our guide to updating your Cartão de Cidadão, domicílio fiscal, Segurança Social and SNS records covers the downstream paperwork.

Letters from the High Commissioner carry no binding force. What they carry is a paper trail: Portugal's next periodic reviews before the treaty bodies will start from this correspondence, and states that ignore such letters tend to find them quoted back.