Bisola David
A judgement released on Wednesday by the the Supreme Court of Panama has determined that same-sex marriage is not a human right and that as a result, the nation is not required to recognize such partnerships.
According to The Punch, following many petitions from same-sex couples who claimed the country’s family code was unconstitutional since it only recognized marriages between a man and a woman, the court began debating the matter in 2016.
“There is a reality, and that is that, up until this point, the right to equal marriage has merely been an aspiration, even though it is a genuine one for the people involved. It does not come into the category of a human right or a basic right,” the court said in a ruling on February 16.
The same-sex couples who brought the lawsuit sought to have marriages that occurred in other nations recognized as legal in Panama.
Nonetheless, the court stated that for the time being, gay marriage “lacks conventional and constitutional legitimacy, no matter how many changes occurred in actuality.”
The family code was “objectively and fairly justified in the public interests of providing preference to those partnerships capable of generating families, giving continuity to the human race, and consequently to society,” the court continued.
In Panama, the Catholic Church, which opposes same-sex unions, has a substantial political influence.
The Interamerican Court of Human Rights concluded in 2018 that same-sex couples are entitled to the same marital rights as opposite-sex couples. This decision was binding on all of the court’s members, including Panama.
The only nation in Central America to still accept same-sex unions is Costa Rica.
With the February 16 decision, president of the LGBT rights organization Fundacion Iguales, Ivan Chanis, said the Panamanian legal system “has rejected the acknowledgment of the dignity of same-sex couples and their right to form a family in Panama.”
