Online expert talk on ‘civil partnerships’

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Published: May 2, 2023

The action plan for the implementation of the National Strategy in the area of human rights for 2021-2023, which was already adopted in Ukraine on 23 June 2021, according to which the institution of registered civil partnerships is also planned. This issue has also become particularly important and relevant in the current situation, as a large number of members of the LGBTQI community are serving in the ranks of the armed forces in the defence of Ukraine. A corresponding draft law is therefore being prepared.

At the request of the Ministry of Justice of the Ukraine, the IRZ therefore organised an online expert talk on the subject of ‘civil partnerships’ on 12 April 2023. Former Deputy Secretary Dr. Thomas Meyer, who is currently the long-serving Head of Division at the Federal Ministry of Justice and was involved in the drafting of the German Civil Partnership Act served as the German expert. In his first lecture, Dr. Meyer set out the general social and political situation at that time and the emergence and development of the German Civil Partnership Act. In the second part, he discussed the regulations of the German Civil Partnership Act in more detail, and its further revision up to the introduction of marriage for all in 2017.

Representatives from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, including the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Dr. Oleksandr Banchuk and Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine for European Integration Valeriia Kolomiiets, and representatives of civil society (charity organisation ‘100 Percent Life’ and National LGBTI Consortium #LGBTI_PRO) participated in the online expert talk.

With regard to the planned introduction of a law on ‘civil partnerships’, the Ukrainian contributions to the expert talk referred to the prohibition of discrimination in Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Ukrainian partners emphasised that this does not include same-sex marriage, but a registered civil partnership only. This is because firstly, the Constitution of Ukraine and the Family Code defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and any changes to the Constitution are prohibited under martial law, which is currently in force. Secondly, although the results of recent opinion polls on the right to a registered civil partnership have been extremely positive, we must recognise that this change is fairly revolutionary for a large portion of Ukrainian society.

Furthermore, this development not only applies to Ukraine. Many European countries, including Germany, initially introduced the institution of registered civil partnerships and only over the years have these countries entitled homosexual and heterosexual couples to full equality, although only the institution of civil partnership exists in some countries.