France gets slammed on discrimination against homosexuals wishing to adopt
January 24, 2008
In a victory for homosexuals that could have an impact on gay adoption laws in countries across Europe, judges in Strasbourg, France decided that the woman, known as “E.B.”, was a victim of discrimination by France solely because of her sexual orientation.
The nursery school teacher, 45, has lived with the same female partner for nearly 20 years. But she was turned down as adoption candidate by French authorities who stressed the absence of a father figure in the home.
The judges said that articles 8 and 14 of the European Human Rights Convention had been violated by the French government. Article 14 forbids discrimination. Article 8 provides for the right to respect for one’s private and family life. As a result, France has been told to pay the woman damages of 10,000 euros ($14,522) and 14,528 euros in costs.
Nine European countries allow homosexuals to adopt children: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden. However, adoption by gay couples remains illegal in France. At the same time, France, like many other countries, does allow unmarried people to adopt. And therein lays the legal paradox that snared France in its web.
The Strasbourg, France court’s Tuesday ruling noted that: “French law allows single persons to adopt a child, thereby opening up the possibility of adoption by a single homosexual.”
The court criticized the French judiciary’s emphasis on “the lack of a paternal referent in the household” in E.B.’s case. By emphasizing the lack of a father figure, the court judges that the reference to the applicant’s homosexuality had been “if not explicit, at least implicit,” the ruling said.
The case first came before the court in Strasbourg in December 2002.
A spokesman for the court said it was the first such ruling against one of the 47 members of the Council of Europe, which set up the court.
The vote, while conclusive, was by no means unanimous, with ten judges voting in favor of the ruling and seven against.
The ruling means that, in France, or any European country where homosexual marriage is still not allowed, adoption by a lesbian or gay person could now be possible anyway. However, any partner’s status as regarding the child would still be fuzzy. As things stand in France, the adoptive parent’s companion would have no legal rights over the child, not being recognized as his or her parent. So for some homosexual couples wishing to parent children, the victory is tempered by the recognition that their status still is equal to that of heterosexual couples.
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