Ms Ladele was a Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and Mr McFarlane a Relate counselor. They complained about their dismissal, confirmed by the British courts, for refusing to carry out certain of their duties which they considered would condone homosexuality.

The Court has held, it could not be said that national courts had failed to strike a fair balance when they upheld the employers’ decisions to bring disciplinary proceedings. In each case the employer was pursuing a policy of nondiscrimination against service-users, and the right not to be discriminated against on grounds of sexual orientation was also protected under the Convention.

Eweida v UK: Documents

The European Court of Human Rights in three judgments of today has found that media reports about homosexual acts in a catholic seminary are admissible. In view of the Roman Catholic Church’s position condemning homosexuality, the public had a right to be informed about the conduct of a dignitary of the Church which was in open contradiction with that position. This included the disclosure of the identity of the persons concerned but not the publication of intimate photographs (Küchl v A, Rothe v Austria, Verlagsgruppe News GmbH & Bobi v A).

The judgments can be found here: Documents

Ms Fedotova had been brought to administrative responsibility for “public actions aimed at propaganda of homosexuality among minors”. The UN Human Rights Committee found a violation of CCPR article 19(2), in conjunction with 26 (Irina Fedotova v RUS).

The decision can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org

Rechtskomitee LAMBDA calls on the government to allow reason to prevail.

In a decision delivered today the Austrian Constitutional Court turned down another discrimination of registered vs married couples. Registered partners could acquire a joint surname only at registration while spouses can choose a joint family name also at any time later. Such a statutory provision discriminates against registered couples and violates equality before the law. The Constitutional Court therefore turned it down and stressed again that also same-sex couples enjoy the constitutional protection of the family. Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), Austria’s LGBT civil rights organisation, called on the federal government to allow reason to prevail and repeal all the differences between registered partners and spouses.