The Government has reached a settlement with Joanne Cassar, who had taken Malta before the European Court of Human Rights when she was banned from marrying after having had a sex-change operation.

Informed sources said the government will amend the law that could ultimately lead to her being allowed to marry a man.

The 31-year-old hairdresser told the European Court that Malta had breached her rights by refusing to issue marriage banns after her gender was changed to female on her birth certificate.

When contacted by timesofmalta.com, Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli confirmed that the new Labour Government was planning to reach an agreement with Ms Cassar over her court case and amend the law.

The minister said that further details would be given during a press conference scheduled for tomorrow morning.

One of Ms Cassar’s lawyers, David Camilleri, said that over the past weeks he had meetings with Government representatives over the case. He, however, preferred not to divulge further information at this stage.

Ms Cassar had surgery in the UK when she was 22 after being diagnosed with gender identity disorder, a conflict between a person’s physical gender and self-identification.

Ms Cassar’s battle for marriage started soon after when she and her partner applied for the wedding banns.

The Marriage Registrar refused to issue them even though Ms Cassar had legally changed her gender to female on her birth certificate after surgery.

Her wedding was planned for December 2007 although the couple are no longer together.

In February 2007, Ms Cassar won a civil case in which the court ordered the registrar to issue the wedding banns, but the decision was overturned on appeal in May 2008.

In May 2011, the Constitutional Court held that although Ms Cassar’s rights had been breached this was due to shortcomings in the law to cater for some form of partnership for people in her situation. It did not result that the banns should have been issued.

She has now taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights. A few months ago the ECHR asked the Government if it wanted to reach an agreement with her but the Government stuck to its argument – that marriage can only take place between a biological male and female and Ms Cassar’s gender was only changed on paper to protect her privacy.