The government is ignoring requests from the UN Human Rights Council to change the barbaric practice.

Despite international pressure, the Finnish government is refusing to change a law that forces trans people to be sterilized before they’re able to update their gender identity on government records.

The Act on Legal Recognition of the Gender of Transsexuals, or “Trans Act,” includes aspects that infringe on basic human rights, including sterilization and lengthy mental health screenings.

“The psychiatric diagnosing process felt like I was handing my dignity, identity and future over to doctors, nurses and officials that would thoroughly examine me and judge whether or not my sense of self was real or not,” med student Sakris Kupila told Gay Star News.

Kupila is leading the fight for trans people to freely live as the gender they identity with in the country and she has managed to get over 16,000 people to sign a petition calling for change to the transphobic rule.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled earlier this year that requiring trans people to be sterilized is a violation of their human rights, and the UN Human Rights Council has been recommending that the country change the barbaric practice and stop defining being trans as a mental health diagnosis.

The Finnish government ignored the recommendations, however, not only failing to overturn the policy, but refusing to give a reason for its decision as well.