Romania - May 2023

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Romania violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting the right to private and family life, after a total of 21 same-sex couples brought complaints to the court over the lack of legal recognition of their relationships between 2019 and 2020. The ruling finds that Romania must make domestic legislative changes to recognise same-sex relationships in line with its commitments as a Council of Europe member state, while the exact nature of the legal regime is to be determined by domestic legislators. Romania’s civil code currently specifies that marriage should be between a man and a woman; the country has had a civil partnerships bill pending in Parliament since 2019. A recent report from LGBTQIA+ rights group ILGA-Europe ranked Romania in the bottom ten countries in Europe for human rights protections of LGBTQIA+ communities.

Sources: European Court of Human Rights, Novinite, France24, The Pink News, ILGA-Europe , G4Media