ICCL Forum on Partnership Rights and Family Diversity

damien

Got this in the mail:


The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) cordially invites you to a Forum on Partnership Rights and Family Diversity


Date: Saturday, 26 February 2005

Time: 2-4.30pm (following the ICCL AGM)

Location: Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2

Speakers:
Karen Kiernan, Family Diversity Initiative/One Family
Natalie McDonald, Treoir
Senator David Norris
Other speaker to be confirmed

Chair: Marie Mulholland, Convenor of ICCL Partnership Rights and Family Diversity Initiative

Cohabitation is a growing trend in Irish society, and in many cases, marks the beginning of a new family unit. However non-married cohabiting couples, whether same or opposite-sex, experience very serious inequalities and major difficulties because of the State's failure to recognise their relationship and family life.

Against this background ICCL has developed, through consultation, a position paper on law reform to provide equality for all couples and families irrespective of marital status or sexual orientation. The objective of this forum is to bring together a range of organisations/individuals representing groups who are currently adversely affected by a lack of protection to discuss different approaches to such law reform.

RSVP to Tanya Ward, Senior Research and Policy Officer by Thursday 24 February 2005.
Tel: (01) 878 0588 Email: tanya.ward@iccl.iol.ie

Also, if you have any special needs (disability aids, Irish Sign Language (ISL) Interpreter etc.), please inform the ICCL in advance.

newgrange

The Forum was an extension of the AGM of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. It was chaired by Marie Mulholland, and the meeting was addressed by four main speakers:

Karen Kiernan who represented Family Diversity/One Family http://www.familydiversity.ie and http://www.onefamily.ie/ . She spoke on a number of issues including the numbers of families in Ireland who do not 'fit' the State's traditional model of family, and the inequity which exists in social welfare, taxation etc. when a family does not fit the standard.

Natalie McDonnell from Treoir http://www.treoir.ie/ spoke about children's rights and the legal obstacles to pursuing recognition of alternative ideas of family.

Angela O'Connell from L.inc http://www.linc.ie/ presented evidence from research carried out abroad that proved (as if we didn't know) that there are no ill-effects to being raised by two women, and that children from lesbian households are at no disadvantage psychologically or socially compared to those from standard family arrangements. In fact this has been proven to be the case so often that they no longer research the issue. There has not been as much research carried out where the parents are both men, though I can't see any reason to expect a difference.

Senator Norris spoke regarding his Bill, and was as entertaining as ever. http://www.senatordavidnorris.ie/

The meeting covered many issues - the position of partners who are not EU nationals, the issue of adopting a partner's child(ren) to secure their legal situation should anything happen the natural parent, access to assisted reproduction, inheritance rights, the lack of rights of fathers who are not married to the mother of their child(ren), what to do if a relationship breaks up, but the non-biological parent still desires contact with the child - all of these issues are not covered under Irish law as it stands.

There was then a tactical discussion as to whether or not we should be looking for complete equality, with all its attendant rights and obligations ('marriage' or a form of same-sex only 'civil union', which would effectively be the same as marriage, but would not 'threaten' the state of marriage, as this is proscribed by the Constitution - it would not be called marriage, but would be the same as that available to heterosexuals), a form of less restrictive 'civil partnership', open to both same sex and opposite sex couples, which would have less strict terms, such as a shorter time needed to dissolve the relationship officially, but would not carry with it all of the benefits of full 'marriage'. This would also be an option for those, who, for whatever reason, cannot or choose not to 'marry' or commit in a 'civil union'.

It was felt in general that the legislative path was the way to go. Legal recognition of same-sex relationships is coming, it is just a question as to whether we have it brought in as a result of an outside court ruling, such as the European Court of Human Rights, a ruling of our own courts, such as that which may come as a result of the Zappone/Gilligan case, or as a result of legislative reform. In a modern society, legislative reform is obviously the preferable option, and as was pointed out at the meeting, we (as a country) have actually come a long way in a short period of time, when you think that contraception was illegal until 20 years ago, and male homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1993.

People were not sure whether at this time any law requiring a change in the Constitution would be successful, the disgrace of the recent Citizenship Referendum result ringing in people's ears. We cannot, unfortunately, depend on the great Irish public to 'do the right thing', so legislation rather than Constitutional reform was felt to be the way to go.

All in all, the meeting is a start to a process, it is the start of a campaign to change people's attitudes and prejudices, and the more human faces we can put to case studies the better. It is easier for people to dismiss the general notion of 'gay marriage' than it is for them to argue that Miss X who has lived with Miss Y for many years, does not have the right to be considered her next of kin, or to a share in her property, if Miss X stipulated that in a will, or to continue bringing up the child(ren) they jointly raised, even if she is not their natural mother.

On that note, if there is anyone in the situation of having split from a long-term partner, with whom they were involved in raising children, ICCL would like to hear from you. Complete anonymity assured.

United Nations definition of 'family':
"The family is technically defined as 'any combination of two or more persons who are bound together by ties of mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement and who, together, assume responsibility for, inter alia, the care and maintenance of group members, the addition of new members through procreation or adoption, the socialization of children and the social control of members.' "

Anyone else who was at the meeting, if I have misrepresented anything here, or omitted anything of substance, please feel free to comment.
(previously posted on www.queer.ie)

damien

I was there too. Pity I didn't know you were there. I could have passed on a copy of a TV series we shall not mention...

The meeting was excellent I have to say. The quality of the speakers and what they had to say gave me a lot of food for thought. The questions from the audience added even more to the debate. It was really nice to see so many different groups looking for equal rights and all coming together to help get them.

As you stated, this is just the begining of a campaign, one which will probably prove to be long-term and will involve a lot of work. The ICCL is working their collective asses off for OUR rights and I think we should recognize that by becoming payng members and/or volunteering to help out. The ICCL is totally independent of the Government and so does not get any public funding. All its funding comes from donations and membership fees.

This is an excellent report Newgrange, well done.

sidhbhra

Marvellous coverage newgrange, hopefully we are on the way to serious things in the light of this recent awareness forum.

Yoda

The Constitution does not proscribe gay marriage, folks.

damien

Yoda wrote:

The Constitution does not proscribe gay marriage, folks.

It's not a zero-sum style issue. Just because it doesn't proscribe gay marriage does not mean it allows it. It's a grey area and so the supreme court rules and has ruled on this.

Besides the meeting wasn't just about gay marriage. For full equality for same sex and non-married opposite sex couples the constitution needs to be changed for a far better definition of family.

newgrange

The Constitution does not proscribe gay marriage, folks.

Not explicitly, but it does link marriage and the family, and any attack on the 'family' is proscribed (Article 41 3.1 - "The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack"), hence it is a tactical move NOT to call civil union 'marriage'.

Annasopra

The report on the seminar is avilable here

http://www.activelink.ie/ce/downl05/iccl-forum-feb05.pdf