arriage equality without having any form of legal recognition of same-sex couples, Georgia will contradict the ECHR standard. If the constitutional amendments about marriage are adopted, the Constitution must also guarantee civil partnership for same-sex couples. We believe that the following sentence should be added to the Constitutional provision about marriage: “other forms of cohabitation shall be regulated by the law.”
This way, constitutional prohibition of marriage will no longer be viewed as a restriction of rights of LGBT people and the legislation will still supply other important legal guarantees to them (inheritance rights, property rights, spousal support, right to visit a hospitalized partner, right to visit an imprisoned partner, etc.). Some European countries already practice such regulations – for instance, when Croatia passed the Constitutional prohibition of same-sex marriage it also adopted the law about civil partnership of same-sex couples.
In addition, to ensure meaningful equality it is important that the list of protected characteristics provided in the Constitution must also include sexual orientation and gender identity. Because such interpretation of the applicable Article by the Constitutional Court already exists, it is peculiar that the Constitutional Commission is reluctant to expand the list of protected characteristics under the right to equality.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
Equality Movement
Open Society – Georgia Foundation
Human Rights Center
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association
Media Development Fund (MDF)
Transparency International – Georgia
Georgian Democratic Initiative (GDI)
Partnership for Human Rights (PHR)
Sapari Union
Women’s Initiatives Support Group (WISG)
Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)
Identoba
[1] In 2013 the ECHR found violation of Article 8 and 14 of the Convention by Greece because the local legislation excluded same-sex couples from civil union/civil partnership.
