EIT:n suuri jaosto: Avioliiton kaltaista rekisteröityä siviilioikeudellista parisuhdetta ei voitu rajata ainoastaan eri sukupuolta oleville

Euroopan ihmisoikeustuomioistuimen (EIT) suuri jaosto on tänään antamassaan tuomiossa katsonut, että Kreikan lainsäädäntö siviilioikeudellisen parisuhteen rekisteröimiselle oli syrjivä, koska se sallitaan ainoastaan eri sukupuolta olevien henkilöiden kesken.

EIT:n lehdistötiedotteesta:

In today’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Vallianatos and Others v. Greece (applications nos. 29381/09 and 32684/09), which is final, the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that there had been:

a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken together with Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case concerned the “civil unions” in Greece introduced by Law no. 3719/2008, entitled “Reforms concerning the family, children and society”. This Law made provision for an official form of partnership, allowing the persons concerned to register their relationship within a more flexible legal framework than that provided by marriage.

The applicants complained that Law no. 3719/2008 provided for civil unions only for different-sex couples, thereby automatically excluding same-sex couples from its scope. They complained that the Greek State had introduced a distinction which, in their view, discriminated against them.

The Court remarked that of the 19 States which authorised some form of registered partnership other than marriage, Lithuania and Greece were the only ones to reserve it exclusively to differentsex couples. It held that the State had not shown it to have been necessary, in pursuit of the legitimate aims invoked by the Law introducing civil unions, to bar same-sex couples from entering into such unions.

Koko lehdistötiedote, missä myös linkki koko tuomioon, löytyy täältä: here