Romania must recognise same-sex civil unions, EU top rights court rules

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:09:24 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230523-romania-must-recognise-same-sex-civil-unions-eu-top-court-rules>

'Twenty-one same-sex couples took Romania to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR), arguing the lack of legal recognition of their relationships "deprived
them of their dignity as spouses".

In a ruling on Tuesday, the ECHR found the country had violated Article 8 of
the European Convention, which protects the right to respect for family life,
by not giving LGBTQ+ couples any means of legally safeguarding their
relationships.

The Romanian couples cited the disadvantages faced under current domestic laws,
such as being barred from mortgage programmes, spousal bereavement leave or
joint health insurance.

The ECHR said none of the government's arguments outweighed the couples'
concerns, and further ruled that recognising same-sex civil unions would not
harm the institution of marriage.

The ruling will become legally binding after a three-month period in which both
sides have the right to appeal to a higher court of the ECHR.

If neither do, the ruling will stand and lead to Romania being required to
implement legislation to introduce same-sex civil unions.

The Balkan nation of almost 20 million people remains largely socially
conservative, ranking 41st out of 49 in the 2023 ranking of European countries'
LGBTQ+ rights by advocacy group ILGA-World.

However, in 2021, a survey by Romanian civil rights group Accept Association
showed 43% of respondents said they were in favour of legal protection for
same-sex relationships.'

Via Future Crunch:
<https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-homicide-education-sierra-leone-solar-china/>

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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