| 09.11.2009 | European Court of Human Rights 
Oral Hearing in Marriage Case
Scheduled
In Schalk & Kopf v. Austria (Application
No. 30141/04) the First Section of the Court (which includes
the Austrian judge) has scheduled an oral hearing on the
admissibility and merits of the application for Thursday, 14
January 2010 at 9:00 am, before a 7-judge Chamber of the
Court (which has 47 judges, one per Council of Europe member
state). Hearings are now exceptional, because of the Court's
heavy caseload, so this indicates the importance of the case.
Mr. Horst SCHALK & Mr. Johann
KOPF were denied permission to marry
in Vienna in Dec. 2002. Their subsequent legal
challenge was rejected by the Austrian
Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof) on 12
Dec.
2003. The applicants submitted an
application on their behalf to the Eur Ct HR, which
was communicated to the Austrian Government in Jan.
2007.
The Eur Ct HR asked the Government to respond to the
following questions:
"1. Have the applicants suffered discrimination in
the enjoyment of their Convention rights on the
ground of their sexual orientation, contrary to
Article 14 of the [European] Convention [on Human
Rights] read in conjunction with Article 8 [which
includes the right to respect for private and family
life]? In particular, should they be afforded a
possibility of having their relationship recognised
by law. [Although same-sex couples in Austria now
enjoy the same, extensive rights as unmarried
different-sex couples, as a result of Siegmund
KARNER v. Austria, Eur Ct HR, 24 July 2003, they do
not enjoy all the rights of married different-sex
couples, and they have no access to an alternative
registration system.]
2. Has there been a violation of the applicant's
right to marry, contrary to Article 12 of the
Convention?"
On 26 June 2007, on behalf of the FIDH (Fédération
Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme)
in Paris, the ICJ (International
Commission of Jurists) in Geneva, the
AIRE Centre (Advice
on Individual Rights in Europe) in
London, and ILGA-Europe (European
Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Trans and Intersex Association) in
Brussels,
ECSOL-member
Robert Wintemute
submitted Written Comments (a
third-party intervention or amicus curiae brief)
and will now
request leave to take part in the hearing on behalf
of the above-mentioned third parties. This hearing
will be the first the Court has held that deals with
equal access to legal marriage for a same-sex
couple, as opposed to a different-sex couple (in
which one partner is transsexual and has undergone
gender reassignment).
www.echr.coe.int
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