Hong Kong’s regulation does not permit same-sex marriage and does not recognise overseas unions. (File)
Hong Kong:
Hong Kong’s excessive court docket on Friday dominated that same-sex couples ought to obtain equal remedy below inheritance regulation, in a step ahead for LGBT rights within the finance hub.
However the victory got here on the identical day as a separate authorized bid for full recognition of overseas same-sex marriages was struck down, underscoring what campaigners say is an absence of progress on equality points.
Hong Kong’s regulation doesn’t permit same-sex marriage and doesn’t recognise overseas unions, although restricted recognition has been granted in recent times in a number of landmark rulings.
Edgar Ng, a homosexual Hong Konger, final 12 months launched a authorized problem in opposition to town’s inheritance and intestacy legal guidelines, alleging discrimination on the idea of sexual orientation.
In 2018 he purchased a government-subsidised flat, a 12 months after marrying his accomplice in London, in line with court docket paperwork.
Beneath Hong Kong’s housing coverage, his husband can’t be recognised because the joint home-owner, and Ng was involved that ought to he die and not using a will, his property wouldn’t be handed to his accomplice.
Within the judgement handed down Friday, Choose Anderson Chow mentioned the exclusion of spouses in same-sex marriages from their authorized entitlements “constitutes illegal discrimination”.
The decide mentioned “differential remedy will not be justified”.
LGBT rights activists with marketing campaign group Hong Kong Marriage Equality described the ruling as an “essential victory”.
“The federal government ought to seize this chance to work with the LGBT+ group to implement marriage equality within the metropolis,” the affiliation mentioned.
Pleasure concerning the authorized win was tempered nevertheless by a separate ruling on Friday that rejected an software for a judicial evaluate into Hong Kong’s regulation on recognising abroad homosexual marriage.
In 2018 town introduced that abroad same-sex companions would qualify for the precise to dwell and work in Hong Kong, however different rights are nonetheless denied to same-sex couples.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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