Robert Wintemute
School of Law, King’s College London
"Same-Sex Partners and Parents in the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights”
Co-sponsored by: Law Lab & Out in Law
Friday Sept 7th
2 – 3 pm
Faculty Common Room
Professor Robert Wintemute (School of Law, King’s College London), "Same-Sex Couples and Parents in the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights"
Since 2000, Prof. Wintemute has worked on lesbian and gay family cases in the European Court of Human Rights, representing intervening non-governmental organisations or the applicants. These decided (or pending) cases have involved (or involve) adoption by lesbian and gay individuals, second-parent or step-parent adoption in lesbian couples, access to marriage or an alternative registration system for same-sex and different-sex couples, and immigration rights for same-sex partners from outside the European Union. In 2011, Prof. Wintemute served as an expert witness at the hearing before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Karen Atala v. Chile, the Court's first case dealing with any aspect of lesbian and gay human rights. Ms. Atala, an openly lesbian trial court judge, lost custody of her three daughters to her former husband when her female partner moved in with her and her daughters. Prof. Wintemute will reflect on the trends in the case law of the two Courts, and the prospects for an eventual international obligation on all 71 countries that are parties to the European and American Conventions on Human Rights to provide full legal equality to lesbian and gay individuals and same-sex couples.
For more information, contact simon.stern@utoronto.ca
