Many news reports have noted that the British government announced plans to seek an equal marriage law, but I have seen no press on the remainder of the statement: that the government intends to keep civil partnerships – available only to gay couples – off limits to different sex couples. This is a slap [...]
The High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has ruled that same-sex couples must be allowed to adopt. In Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission’s Application (for judicial review), [2012] NIQB 77, the court held that a government policy restricting adoption to married couples violated the European Convention on Human Rights. A previous ruling by the House of [...]
If we had to pick the world’s most active legal forum for LGBT rights, it would be the European Court of Human Rights. Following is a summary of a decision from last week, plus three other cases in the pipeline. The Court has also published an excellent summary of its decided and pending sexual orientation-related [...]
In a crucial test, Nepal’s government has agreed to issue a new citizenship certificate to Caitlin Panta, a nineteen-year-old who underwent sex reassignment surgery this past January (and was apparently the first Nepali citizen to do so). Although the process was fraught with bureaucracy, including an examination by a three-member panel to “confirm” Ms. Panta’s [...]
Another battle has erupted between an eastern European state and broader European norms regarding homosexuality. Last Tuesday, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to outlaw the “promotion of homosexuality.” By the end of the week, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner warned that the legislation “runs counter toUkraine’s international commitments to ensure freedom of expression and information.” [...]
Latin America has long been an area of the world with very weak reproductive rights protections. All too familiarly, strong religious and other socially conservative interests in most Latin American countries (Cuba being the most notable exception) have successfully framed abortion law as being about traditional morality and “family values,” not women’s safety, health, and privacy. A [...]