International conference on mutual recognition, November 2011
On November 18 and 19, l’Autre Cercle organized an international conference at the Council of Europe with the patronage of its Secretary General Mr.Thorbjørn Jagland and with the support of the City of Strasbourg.
The theme of the conference was :
« The lack of mutual recognition of same-sex partnerships and marriages in the European Union and member states of the Council of Europe : an obstacle to the freedom of movement of persons ? »
Just over 30 speakers (including Silvan Agius, Pierre Serne and Tomasz Szypula from ILGA-Europe) addressed the conference, coming from 18 different European countries and a pre-conference reception was held at the Ambassador’s residence by the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Council of Europe.
Conference participants heard that, currently, even the countries which legally recognise same-sex families and their children do not necessarily recognise similar families of same-sex couples from other EU countries. However, all EU countries automatically recognise each other's different-sex marriages," said Gabi Calleja, Co-Chair of the Executive Board of the ILGA-Europe.
"ILGA-Europe considers this to be a case of direct discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and calls on the European Commission to remedy such discrimination by introducing legal measures to facilitate the mutual recognition of all civil status documents across the EU," Calleja added.
The conference featured first-hand testimony about such discrimination. The marriage of a Polish man planning to wed a Spaniard in Spain was blocked by Polish authorities who refused to give him a certificate of non-marital status; a Frenchman was stripped of his nationality after marrying a Dutchman in the Netherlands; and a Finnish-French lesbian couple fought a lengthy and unsuccessful battle to gain the right of second-parent adoption in France.
To get a better feel for what went on in Strasbourg, there is a full page dedicated to the conference on the Autre Cercle website with photos and media coverage. (see http://www.autrecercle.org/default.asp?cat_id=276)
There is also an article on the Council of Europe website at :
