Is there a right to exclusively heterosexual marriage?

By Robert Fisher | June 9, 2012

The UK Government is consulting on its proposal to permit same sex civil marriage.  Persons responding are allowed “1225 characters” to explain their view of the proposed change.  Here is my response:

THIS IS NOT A STANDARD STATEMENT OF REASONS: PLEASE READ!

International human rights law guarantees the right to marry specifically to men and women, e.g. Article 12 ECHR and Article 23(2) of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, both of which bind the UK. Other human rights are expressed in terms of “everyone”, but marriage is different: see the judgment of the ECtHR in Schalk & Kopf v Austria (2010) and the Decision of the UN Human Rights Committee in Joslin v New Zealand (2002).

If the proposed change to marriage law is enacted, the concept of exclusively heterosexual marriage as adopted in human rights law will no longer exist in English law. If I seek to exercise my right to marry in future under such a law, I will be deprived of my right to contract a marriage as envisaged by human rights law & will be left with the option of a “marriage” which has become an artificial construct of English law, emptied of its essential element. Yes, I can still “marry’ a woman if I wish to, but “marriage” will then be a lesser concept which is liable to be redefined further beyond the concept of two persons. See the recent Canadian case on polygamy.

Do not violate my right to a real marriage!

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