European rights ruling to affect Irish laws

A LANDMARK case in Europe supporting tenancy rights for gay couples will have implications here when Ireland ratifies the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in December.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Austrian Government unlawfully discriminated against a gay man who had been thrown out of his home after the death of his partner.

A bill is going through the Oireachtas which will adopt the ECHR into Irish law by the end of the year.

“There is no question that ECHR law and jurisprudence will have an effect on Irish law when we have adopted this bill,” said Eugene Regan, barrister and European law specialist.

“If a case is taken, a judge will be entitled to declare that some parts of Irish law are incompatible with the convention. It doesn’t mean you win your case or otherwise. It puts it back to the Government and invites it to change the law. But that would create pressure.”

European Court of Human Rights law is not immediately binding, unlike European Union law, he said.

The European Court’s ruling followed a case taken by Siegmund Karner who between 1989 and 1994 shared a flat with his partner in Vienna.

In 1991 his partner was diagnosed with AIDS and Mr Karner nursed him until his death in 1994, when his landlord tried to terminate his tenancy.

The European Court ruled that particularly serious reasons had to be given to justify discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The Austrian Government argued that the discrimination was in order to protect the traditional family unit.

The court ruled that this was an abstract argument and did not offer convincing and weighty reasons for discrimination. It found in favour of Mr Karner, who himself died in 2000.

Welcoming the ruling, Senator David Norris said he was working on a bill to give domestic partnership rights to all people outside marriage, including gay people.