Dobrowolska assessed the court’s decision to reject the same-sex couple’s request to register a partnership: this is an indication to the Seimas
“It is a clear indication for the Seimas to take responsibility and solve the issue in the Seimas, instead of sending its citizens to the courts, going through all possible instances,” the minister noted on her personal Facebook account on Friday.
Vilnius District Court on Friday rejected the request of a same-sex couple to register a civil partnership. The decision is motivated by the fact that there is no law on partnership in Lithuania, and therefore there is no legal act by which the request of the applicants could be satisfied.
The court recalled that The Constitutional Court has recognized that the concept of family is gender neutral, and also emphasized that Seimas (legislative authority) must regulate the legal relations of all types of families and the rights and duties of family members by laws and other legal acts. True, as the court observed, the Constitutional Court does not provide for the above-mentioned duty for the judicial authorities.
ELTA reminds that at the beginning of April, three same-sex couples applied to the court in order to defend their right to create a family and register a marriage in Lithuania.
As A. Žilinskas told the journalists of LNK TV, one of the cases filed by the couples is a partnership. According to the lawyer, this is a civil partnership of a family that is not formed through marriage. They can be both same-sex and different-sex partnerships.
According to A. Žilinskas, the other cases are about marriage. One marriage has been concluded in the Netherlands, between a Lithuanian citizen and a foreigner, and we want to include it in the accounting in Lithuania. The third one is between two Lithuanian citizens – individuals want to enter into a marriage so that it is registered and accepted in Lithuania.
A. Žilinskas, the couple’s lawyer, added that these cases also aim to establish a precedent, so that same-sex couples can enter into and register a marriage in Lithuania in a judicial manner, without waiting for politicians’ permits and amendments to laws.