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European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) and transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed October 10, 2026 4 min read

The European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) is a psychiatric trade group for European member countries. The organization has published policies and position statements related to psychiatric care for trans and gender diverse young people, most notably a clinically conservative 2024 statement lauded by anti-trans organizations.

ESCAP Policy Division members Maja Drobnič Radobuljac and Riittakerttu Kaltiala are both connected to anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and helped SEGM organize five symposia at the 2025 ESCAP conference.

Background

The roots of the organization began in October 1954, when the Union of European Paedopsychiatrists (UEP) held its first meeting in Magglingen, Switzerland. UEP was officially founded during its first international congress in Paris on September 16, 1960. Subsequent meetings took place in Rome (1963), Wiesbaden (1967), Stockholm (1971), Vienna (1975), Madrid (1979), and Lausanne (1983), where the UEP formally changed its name to the European Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP).

Since 1982, ECSCAP published the peer-reviewed journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Subsequent meetings were in Hamburg (1999), Paris (2003), Florence (2007), Budapest (2009), Helsinki (2011), Dublin (2013), Madrid (2015), Geneva (2017), Vienna (2019), Maastricht (2022), and Copenhagen (2023).

2024 ESCAP policy statement

In 2024, ESCAP published a policy statement on the “urgent need for safeguarding clinical, scientific, and ethical standards” for trans healthcare for young people. As expected, ESCAP psychiatrists recommend that psychiatrists be deeply involved as gatekeepers in clinical decisions around trans healthcare for young people. ESCAP recommends

  • “a rigorous assessment of individual needs and their capacity to consent” regarding “the serious long-term consequences” before medical interventions.
  • ensuring “novel and experimental interventions related to gender dysphoria are differentiated from routine clinical treatment and are performed exclusively as part of documented observational intervention protocols or research trials.”
  • “delivering explicit attention to individuals who seek de-transition or regret their transition.”
  • “Long-term follow-up studies are urgently needed to better understand both the natural course of gender dysphoria in the absence of medical treatment and the consequences of medical transition.”
  • “not to promote experimental and unnecessarily invasive treatments with unproven psychosocial effects.”

The statement was praised by a number of anti-trans organizations, and anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine invited lead author Maja Radobuljac to present ESCAP’s policy statement at their 2024 conference.

2025 ESCAP conference

In the summer of 2025, SEGM helped organize five symposia at the 2025 ESCAP conference in Strasbourg, France, in collaboration with the ESCAP Policy Division. The symposia were packed with prominent anti-trans activists with ties to SEGM.

Maja Drobnic Radobuljac also presented a session promoting Hilary Cass and the Cass Review.

The five symposia were titled:

  • Designing research in gender dysphoria in minors
  • Lived experiences of gender dysphoria
  • Gender dysphoria in minors: Evidence for and development of treatment approaches
  • When evidence is not sufficient: The ethics of gender dysphoria management in minors
  • Cautious national developments in treatment of GD in minors

The symposia Chairs were:

Participants were:

  • “Helen” [British parent whose child reportedly “desisted” from a trans identity]
  • Anne Wæhre (2)
  • Lucian Wolf [Slovenian youth transitioner]

For more details, see the 2025 ESCAP conference page.

People

Board

Policy Division

  • Chair: Prof Maja Drobnič Radobuljac – Slovenia
  • Co-Chair: Prof Robert Vermeiren – The Netherlands
  • Prof Dimitris Anagnostopoulos – Greece
  • Dr Füsun Çuhadaroglu Çetin – Turkey
  • Dr Sofie Crommen – Belgium
  • Prof Stephan Eliez – Switzerland
  • Prof Sarah Hohmann – Germany
  • Prof Riittakerttu Kaltiala – Finland
  • Prof Konstantinos Kotsis – Greece
  • Prof Nermina Kravic – Bosnia-Herzegovina

Selected ESCAP publications

Drobnič Radobuljac, M., Grošelj, U., Kaltiala, R., the ESCAP Policy Division [see above], the ESCAP Board [see above], Vermeiren, R., Crommen, S., Kotsis, K., Danese, A., Hoekstra, P.J., Fegert, J. M. (2024). ESCAP statement on the care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: an urgent need for safeguarding clinical, scientific, and ethical standards. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(6), 2011–2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-024-02440-8 Full text https://www.sgkjpp.ch/fileadmin/SGKJPP/user_upload/documents/Radobuljac_ESCAPStatementGenderdysphoria_2024.pdf

ESCAP (October 10, 2024). Draft Minutes of the ESCAP General Assembly. https://www.escap.eu/uploads/General%20Assembly%202025/final-draft-minutes-general-assembly101024v2.pdf

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) (escap.eu)

Springer (springer.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

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