In a judgment delivered last week (VfGH 19.06.2013, G 18, 19/2013) the Austrian Constitutional Court has struck down the statutory prohibition on performing registered partnerships outside the authority´s office-rooms. The governing coalition of Social- and Christian-Democrats however had again inserted such a prohibtion into a new law coming into force next fall. Thus the office-room-compulsion will be reintroduced by 1 November 2013 and the Christian-Democrats - despite the Consitutional Court´s judgment - do insist on this reintroduction. Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, denounces this as unbearable chicanery.
In a judgment delivered today the German Federal Constitutional Court has held that the ban of successive adoption in same-sex registered couples violates fundamental rights. Thus registered partners will be able to adopt children which their same-sex partner has adopted before so that both partners are sharing joint legal parenthood, what so far has been a privilege exclusively for married couples of opposite gender. For details and for the full text of the judgment see: www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de
In its judgment delivered today in the case X et al. v Austria the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held that Austria violated the European Convention on Human Rights by banning step-parent adoption in same-sex couples. The judgment was taken by a majority of 10 against 7. The applicant family have been represented by ECSOL-co-coordinator Dr. Helmut Graupner. For details, for the full text of the judgment and for the webcast of the two oral hearings see: www.echr.coe.int
Rechtskomitee LAMBDA sees governing coalition disgraced.
In a decision delivered today the Austrian Constitutional Court has ordered to apply the same ceremony (wedding vow, witnesses etc.) for the formation of registered partnerships as for marriage. And it started proceedings to repeal the law prohibiting the performance registered partnerships outside the authority´s office-rooms. Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, welcomes the decision and sees the federal governing coalition disgraced as just last month they have passed this law anew.