Seven gay couples take Romania to court to have family relation recognized

Seven same-sex couples have sued the Romanian state at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in order to have their family relationship recognized, Hotnews.ro reported.

First, Florin Buhuceanu and Victor Ciobotaru sued the Romanian state after it refused to recognized the family relationship between them. Six other same-sex couples followed, as legislation concerning the civil partnership is blocked in Parliament, Accept Association, an NGO working for LGBT rights, said.

The marriage registry authorities declined to recognize their family relationship because of interdictions in the Civil Code regarding the legal recognition of relationships between persons of the same sex.

Same-sex partners could not receive any legal recognition or protection of their family, which has “serious consequences on their daily life,” Accept explained. Partners are not recognized in healthcare-related situations and cannot stand by each other or decide for the other when needed, cannot receive their partner’s body from the morgue or undertake the legal steps to receive a death certificate or financial help for the burial. Furthermore, they cannot inherit one another and cannot benefit from co-insured status on their partner’s health insurance contract, the association said.

On March 12, the Senate’s Judicial Commission rejected two projects concerning the civil partnership, on grounds that the legislative proposals “are not justified, the judicial solution does not solve anything and does not answer any social need,” according to Social Democrat Party (PSD) senator Şerban Nicolae.

Asztalos Csaba, the president of the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD), called it a breach to a Constitutional Court decision and said Romania could follow Italy and Greece in legislating on civil partnership after receiving an ECHR judgment, Hotnews.ro reported.

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