STRASBOURG, January 22, 2008  –  The European Court of Human Rights has ruled today that gay men and women are eligible to eligible to adopt children.

This morning, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights handed down its 10-7 judgement in a case of E.B. v France saying that exclusion of individuals from the application process for adoption of children simply because of their sexual orientation is discriminatory and is in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The case centred on Ms. E.B. – a 45-years-old lesbian nursery school teacher – who has been living with another woman, identified as ‘R’ and who is a psychologist, since 1990.

She applied for approval as a possible adoptive parent in February 1998, but her application was rejected, essentially because of her sexual orientation – the “lack of a paternal referent”.

Then in June 2002, the highest administrative court in France upheld the rejection of her application.

Ms. E.B. was awarded 10,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 14,528 for costs and expenses.

In a very similar case in 2002 – Fretté v France, the ECHR ruled by 4 votes to 3 that the exclusion of a gay man from the application process for adoption of children, because of his sexual orientation, did not violate Convention.

But, six years ago, only one judge in the majority considered the exclusion justifiable, the other three rejected the case on technical grounds).

Today’s ruling was widely welcomed throughout Europe.

“We welcome today’s judgement of the European Court of Human Rights,” said Patricia Prendiville, executive director of ILGA-Europe.

“This is a significant change in the Court’s approach towards and interpretation of the rights of LGBT people under the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Today the Court firmly established a principle that administrative officials cannot discriminate against an individual on the basis of her/his sexual orientation in the process of applying to adopt a child.

“This builds on the Court’s judgments in Smith & Grady v United Kingdom [1999] that LGBT people must be allowed to serve in the armed forces, and Mouta v Portugal [1999], that the sexual orientation of a parent is irrelevant when determining who should have custody of a child,” she continued.

“Until today, France permitted administrative officials to exclude openly lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals from applying to adopt children.  The European Court of Human Rights has decided that such a practice is discriminatory and violates the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Ms. Prendiville went on to point out that no one has the automatic right to adopt a child.

“What the European Court of Human Rights said today is that European countries can no longer justify exclusion of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals from applying for a child adoption.  The Court has established the principle that ILGA-Europe has long fought for– each individual should be treated equally on the basis of their individual merits as a potential parent when applying to adopt a child.

“The sexual orientation of the applicant is irrelevant and cannot be used to exclude them from the possibility of adopting a child,” she said.

“It is in the best interest of children in Europe and outside Europe that no potential adoptive parent be excluded from consideration for an irrelevant and discriminatory reason.”

■ ILGA-Europe, FIDH (Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme), APGL (Association des Parents et futurs Parents Gays et Lesbiens) and the BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering) were granted permission to take part in the proceedings as third parties.

■ In the UK, sexuality has never been an issue in the adoption process.  Single people, including gay men and women, have always been eligible to adopt as individuals.  Following the introduction of Civil Partnerships for same-sex couples, adoption laws were changed to include same sex couples who were civilly partnered to jointly adopt, in line with couples who are married.

LINKS

European Court of Human Rights GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT: E.B. v. FRANCE

Cour Européenne des Droits de l’Homme ARRÊT DE GRANDE CHAMBRE: E.B. c. FRANCE