Colombia’s highest court orders Congress to recognize homosexual unions
Image by Gord McKenna via Flickr Colombia’s Constitutional Court has issued a decision declaring that homosexual couples constitute a “family,” but stopping short of giving them a right to “marry” each other. In a decision issued yesterday evening, the Court decreed that the issue of “ matrimony ” between two people of the same sex is a matter for the National Congress to decide, and gave legislators two years to take up the issue. According to the decision, the Congress must legislate “in an integral, systematic, and ordered way regarding the rights of same-sex couples with the purpose of eliminating the lack of protection” that exists for their unions. The jurists decreed that if the Congress does not pass legislation on the matter within that period, “the next day, same-sex couples will be able to go to a notary and legalize their union.” According to the decision, the Congress will be required to pass legislation recognizing the “family” rights of cohabiting homosexuals.