6.  The applicant was born in 1968 and lives in the town of Bila Tserkva, Ukraine. 7.  According to the applicant, for many years she had been living as part of a family with her stepfather, mother and half-brother and wanted to associate herself more closely with them by taking the surname of her stepfather and also a patronymic derived from his forename. 8.  On 24 March 2004 the applicant lodged a request with the Civil Status Registration Office in Bila Tserkva (hereinafter “the Registration Office”) seeking to change her patronymic from Volodymyrivna (Володимирівна) to Yuriyivna (Юріївна). 9.  By a letter of 27 March 2004 the Registration Office refused the applicant’s request, referring to the Rules on Civil Status Registration in Ukraine, approved by the Ministry of Justice, which provided that the patronymic of a physical person could only be changed in the event of a change of forename by his or her father. 10.  On 23 April 2004 the applicant challenged this refusal in the Bila Tserkva Local Court. She complained that her patronymic, along with her forename and family name, was part of her full name and she had the right to change it. She maintained that the refusal violated her constitutional rights, was unconstitutional and was not based on law. She further contended that she had good reasons for changing her patronymic - to disassociate herself from her biological father and associate herself more closely with her stepfather and half-brother. 11.  On 5 May 2004 the applicant changed her original surname from Glazkova to the surname of her stepfather, Garnaga, which was also the surname of her mother and half-brother. 12.  On 10 June 2004 the Bila Tserkva Local Court found that the Registration Office had acted in accordance with the law, in compliance with Article 149 of the Family Code of 2002, and so dismissed the applicant’s complaint. It found that a change of patronymic was only legally possible when the father of the person concerned had previously changed his forename. Therefore, given that the applicant’s father had not changed his forename, the applicant’s request for change of her patronymic had not been in compliance with the law. The court also noted that the Rules on Civil Status Registration provided more detailed regulation of the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Civil Code and the Family Code and did not conflict with them. 13.  On 3 December 2004 the Kyiv Regional Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the first-instance court, holding that its conclusions were based on law. 14.  On 31 October 2006 the Higher Administrative Court dismissed an appeal lodged by the applicant on points of law. It held, in particular, that the argument put forward by the applicant that the new Family Code limited the right to change a patronymic was based on an incorrect interpretation of the provisions of Article 191 of the Family Code of 1969.