The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that requiring transgender people to be sterilized in order to have their gender identity recognized is a violation of their human rights.

Julia Ehrt of Transgender Europe called the verdict "a victory for trans people and human rights in Europe [that] ends the dark chapter of state-induced sterilization in Europe."

There are 22 countries in Europe that still require some form of sterilization or gender-confirming surgery, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Greece and many former Soviet republics. The April 6 ruling requires these nations to amend their laws, but it also maintains that mandatory medical and mental health examinations were not a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

"It is regrettable that cruel and unnecessary medical examinations are seen to be in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights,” said Transgender Europe Senior Policy Officer Richard Köhler. “We will continue to raise awareness about the human rights abuses in the medical field that trans people are still systematically subjected to.”

Some European countries have already abolished laws mandating sterilization or surgery, including the Netherlands, Ireland and France, which lifted its requirement in October 2016. Last month, the Swedish government announced it would compensate transgender people forced to undergo sterilization before its law was repealed.

That law specified that people who wanted to change their legal gender had to be "lacking the ability to procreate," a requirement that left hundreds of trans Swedes unable to

have children.

"The demand for sterilization that existed previously laid out a vision from which today’s society wishes to distance itself and the government believes it was wrong to demand it,” said Swedish Health Minister Gabriel Wilkström.

Some $5 million has been allotted for the purpose, or approximately $26,000 per victim.

"Monetary reparations cannot completely compensate for the violations of forced sterilization," said Kerstin Burman of Swedish LGBT group RFSL, "but financial redress... is an official acknowledgement that these actions were wrong and that the State should not have treated its citizens in this way."