Europe - same-sex ‘marriage’

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that European nations are not legally obliged to allow same sex marriages. They said the European Convention on Human Rights does not include the right for same-sex couples to 'marry'. The court said that each nation can make their own decisions on this matter.

The ruling is a result of a case brought by two Austrian men who said that their human rights were 'breached' because Austria did not allow same-sex 'marriage'. [BBC, 25/6/2010]

This is a good development - because if the Court had ruled in favour of same-sex 'marriage' it would have put pressure on all European nations to comply!

However, the Court did say that there is "an emerging European consensus" that same sex partnerships should have legal recognition, but said individual states could decide how far they went in recognising the legal status of partnerships. At present six of the 27 EU states allow 'marriage' and ten others allow same-sex partnerships.

Read a report at the BBC.

Read the Press Release and Summary of the Judgement from the European Court of Human Rights.