Search Results for: same-sex marriage

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned on Thursday the Russian Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw the LGBTQ+ movement in the country and label proponents of the movement “extremists” under new legislation. The court’s decision is the most recent development in Russia’s ongoing crackdown against LGBTQ+ people within the country. The Russian Supreme [...]

The Prime Minister of Thailand announced Tuesday that his cabinet approved a bill to provide legal recognition to same-sex marriages. According to Thai media, government spokesperson Karom Polpornklang provided details about the bill in a press briefing on Tuesday. The bill would adjust language in Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code to be LGBTQ-inclusive. Words like [...]

Public attitude toward minority rights usually can serve as a good baseline for testing a country’s level of general democracy and tolerance. Croatia became a European Union member in 2013 and is criticised for its undemocratic society. Inside the country, there are constant debates on this ground about whether Croatia should be affiliated with Western [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed two appeals from the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) Tuesday, which sought to uphold the constitutionality of excluding same-sex couples from enjoying the Public Rental Housing (PRH) policy and Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) as married couples. Two applicants lodged a judicial review in 2020 against the HA’s [...]

The India Supreme Court on Tuesday held that there is no fundamental right for same-sex couples to get married. A five-judge bench of the court, headed by the Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, ruled against recognizing same-sex marriages, as well as civil unions for non-heterosexual couples in India in a 3-2 verdict. Earlier [...]

A family court in Japan declared it unconstitutional to require an individual to undergo gender-affirming surgery to obtain identification in line with their gender. The Shizuoka Family Court in Central Japan struck down the law, previously upheld as constitutional by Japan’s Supreme Court in 2019, last week. The Thursday verdict, which has been widely celebrated [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal handed down a judgment on Tuesday finding that the Hong Kong government has a duty to provide an “alternative legal framework for recognition of same-sex relationships.” The court also held that the government’s longstanding failure to do so amounts to a violation of the constitutional right to privacy, [...]

The Nepal Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling requiring the government to register same-sex relationships follows an arduous struggle to achieve marriage equality in the South Asian nation. This historic order is expected to have an impact on an upcoming verdict regarding a similar plea at the Supreme Court of India. Despite India’s decriminalization of queer [...]

Russia President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that bans transgender people from obtaining gender-affirming surgeries in the country. The Russia Duma previously unanimously passed the bill on July 14.  The new law prohibits surgery and hormone therapy for transgender individuals as well as any gender changes on official Russian documentation. The [...]

Natasha Kahungi is JURIST’s Africa Bureau Chief. She files this from Nairobi.  Many voices are being raised as Kenya braces for the anticipated introduction of an anti-LGBT bill in parliament, creating a cacophony of both support and opposition to the planned legislation. This vibrant outpouring of viewpoints highlights the complexity of this pressing social issue [...]