The Possible Revision Of The Constitution - A Potential Source Of Discrimination?

Abstract

Given that over 3 million Romanian citizens have requested the amendment of article 48 of
the Constitution, i.e. the State should only agree with the marriage between a man and a woman,
our study tries to make a brief overview of the positions taken by the European Court of Human
Rights or other national courts in similar situations where such sensitive issues were debated, e.g.
marriage between partners of the same sex or civil partnerships between such persons.
During our analysis we have strived to show the completely different positioning of the
ECHR regarding marriages between the same sex - which it does not support - as well as civil
partnerships – which they easily accepted, their motivation residing in the acceptance of various
social and interrelated realities, in the idea that equal opportunities must be agreed on several levels,
including the cases of same-sex partners who want to be able to buy common property, to achieve a
joint bank loan or to inherit each other after a long period of cohabitation.
At the same time, we have also reviewed the position of the National Council for Combating
Discrimination (NCCD) or other competent bodies campaigning in this new social and legislative
context which led to vivid controversy, for tolerance and for the removal of discriminatory practices
by referencing to the status of such couples already recognized by the Constitution of other
European countries or by the provisions of art. 16 of the Romanian Constitution which speaks about
the principle of non-discrimination between citizens, a principle we want to be real, applicable, and
not one of declamatory nature only.