Sexual orientation before the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The object of this work is to study the European Court of Human Rights case-law concerning sexual orientation, used by the Spanish Constitutional Court (STC 198/2012, 6 November) to consider the Constitution as a living instrument which has to be interpreted in present-day conditions and, consequently, say that Article 32.1 of the Constitution must be interpreted as not excluding same-sex marriage.

To analyze the evolution of the mentioned case-law, I have used the official documents of the ECHR in their original version (www.echr.coe.int). In addition, I have consulted the relevant domestic Law when it has been necessary as well as some bibliography about ECHR and LGBTI rights.
The paper is divided into six sections, including introduction (first epigraph) and bibliography. The second epigraph is about the ECHR case-law on sexual orientation and Criminal Law. The first problem analyzed by the Court is the criminalization of homosexual relations in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Cyprus. The ban was found contrary to the Convention and laws were modified. However, certain of those States maintained the interdiction for the members of the army and several people went before the Court, who declared de Convention violated. Another problem in which Criminal Law is involved is that of the age of consent for sexual relations, which in some domestic Law is higher for same-sex couples than for different-sex ones; the Court found this distinction discriminatory.
The object of the third section is the ECHR case-law on sexual orientation and family life, starting with marriage and other forms of legal recognition of stable same-sex couples and also studying cases related to filiation. In this group of judgments, the main question answered by the Court is whether there has been a violation of Articles 8 and 14 of the Convention. An evolution can be seen in its responses, according to which the margin of appreciation of the States is still important, although public authorities have to take into account that differences based on sex or sexual orientation require particularly serious reasons by way of justification. As these cases are very recent and there are some pending, the opinion of the Court on this issue cannot be said to be definitive.
Afterwards, other relevant cases are studied, in which the ECHR analyzes the alleged discrimination based on sexual orientation in connection with Articles 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the Convention.

The main conclusions reached at the end of the work can be summarized as follows. First of all, criminalization of homosexual relations violates the right to respect for private life. In addition, differences based on sexual orientation need especially serious reasons not to be discriminatory. Moreover, the Court declares that same-sex couples need for legal recognition and protection as well as different-sex ones. As to filiation, the Court analyzes each case conferring the States certain margin of appreciation but within narrow limits.