Same Sex Couple Challenge NI Marriage Law

A same sex couple from Northern Ireland are currently launching a legal bid to have their marriage recognised by law.

The couple were lawfully wed in England, but their marriage will not be recognised in Northern Ireland and can only be declared as a civil partnership. Northern Ireland remains the only region in the UK where same-sex marriages are neither carried out nor recognised.

The legal challenge began at the High Court last Thursday, but details have only just emerged.

The couple in question are now asking the High Court to declare that their marriage should be recognised in Northern Ireland.

The Rainbow Project, which works to secure equal rights for gay, lesbian and LGBT people living in Northern Ireland, said it supported the couple's challenge.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International's NI Programme Director, said: "Amnesty International welcomes this court challenge and predicts that the courts will now move to outlaw discrimination where Northern Ireland's politicians have failed to do so.

"Same-sex couples in Northern Ireland continue to face a ban on marriage as a result of discrimination based on their sexual orientation. We welcome that discrimination being challenged in the courts.

"We have long predicted that, should Northern Ireland's politicians fail in their duty to end such discrimination, then gay people will go to court to have their human rights as equal citizens vindicated.

"States may not discriminate with regards to the right to marry and found a family, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

"That obligation is clear in international law. This means that marriage should be available to same-sex couples in Northern Ireland, just as it is now in Scotland, England and Wales.

Alliance North Down MLA Stephen Farry said: "Yet again it appears that people in Northern Ireland have had to go to the courts to resolve an equality issue due to the lack of an agreement being reached at a political level.

"Equal civil marriage is now law elsewhere in the UK, and is also facilitated in a growing number of societies around the world. The fact that the location of recent progress around equality issues, such as adoption by civil partners and the lifetime ban on blood donation by gay men, has been the courts, is an indictment of our political system.

"I know that many people will have deeply held convictions around this issue, which is why our party policy includes robust protections for faith groups and religious celebrants so that they will not be forced to conduct same sex marriage ceremonies or have them conducted on their premises.

"Even at this stage, I hope that political parties will urgently engage in constructive dialogue with all relevant groups to ensure progress on this issue, rather than once again leaving it to the courts."

(IT/CD)