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X and Others v. Austria (Eur. Ct. H.R.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kathleen A. Doty
Kathleen A. Doty*
Affiliation:
Department of the Navy, Office of the General Counsel, Strategic Systems Programs
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Extract

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, in X and Others v. Austria, held by a majority of ten to seven that Austria violated Article 14 (prohibition on discrimination) taken in conjunction with Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention) when it denied an unmarried same-sex couple the right to a second-parent adoption when second-parent adoptions are available to unmarried opposite-sex couples. This is the first time the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) has recognized a right to second-parent adoption by same-sex couples.

Type
International Legal Materials
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 620 - 661
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014

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References

* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at the European Court of Human Rights Web site (visited August 28, 2014), http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/fra/pages/search.aspx?i=001-116735

1 X and Others v. Austria, App. No. 19010/07, Grand Chamber Judgment, Eur. Ct. H.R. ¶¶ 152–153 (2013), http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-116735.

2 Id. ¶ 92. Article 8 cases have concerned criminalization of homosexual relations between adults and discharge from the armed forces, while Articles 8 and 14 cases have concerned differing ages of consent for homosexual relations, granting parental rights, authorization to adopt children, the right to succeed to the deceased partner’s tenancy, the right to social insurance coverage, and the access to marriage or an alternate legal recognition for same-sex couples.

3 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, art. 8, Nov. 4, 1950, 213 U.N.T.S. 222, available at http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf.

4 Id. at art. 14.

5 X and Others, supra note 1, ¶ 94.

6 Salgueiro da Silva Mouta v. Portugal, App. No. 33290/96, 1999-IX Eur. Ct. H.R. 309, ¶¶ 35–36, http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-58404.

7 Fretté v. France, App. No. 36515/97, 2002-I Eur. Ct. H.R. 345, http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-60168.

8 Id. ¶¶ 38, 41.

9 E.B. v. France, App. No. 43546/02, Eur. Ct. H.R. (2008), http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-84571; X and Others, supra note 1, ¶ 103 (“[T]he Court . . . reversed its position.”).

10 E.B. v. France, supra note 9, ¶ 96.

11 Kathleen A. Doty, From Fretté to E.B.: The European Court of Human Rights on Gay and Lesbian Adoption, 18 TUL. J.L. &; SEXUALITY 121, 133–136 (2009).

12 Gas and Dubois v. France, App. No. 25951/07, Eur. Ct. H.R. ¶ 64 (2012), http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?I=001-109572.

13 Id. ¶ 66.

14 Id. ¶ 69.

15 X and Others, supra note 1, ¶¶ 9–14.

16 Id. ¶¶ 30–31.

17 Id. ¶ 114.

18 Id. ¶ 112.

19 Id. ¶ 137.

20 Id. ¶ 147.

21 Id. ¶ 149.

22 Id. ¶ 153.

23 Id. ¶ 131.

24 Id. ¶ 134.

25 Id. ¶ 144.

26 Xavier B. Lutchmie Persad, An Expanding Human Rights Corpus: Sexual Minority Rights as International Human Rights, 20 CARDOZO J. L. &; GENDER 337, 369 (2014).