The Supreme Court of Panama refuses to recognize equal marriage as a human right

MADRID, 2 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Supreme Court of Justice of Panama has refused to recognize equal marriage as a human right, determining that the mentions in its Family Code and its Private International Law Code that refer to marriage exclusively between a man and a woman are not unconstitutional.

In its ruling, the Court specifies that "there is a reality, and that is that, up to now, the right to equal marriage is no more than an aspiration that, although legitimate for the groups involved, does not have the category of human right and neither fundamental".

In this way, it responds to the appeals that since 2016 requested the revision of some articles of the aforementioned codes due to their possible unconstitutionality.

Specifically, the phrases "between a man and a woman" have been revised in article 26 of the Family Code of the Republic of Panama, the expression "persons of the same sex" of precept 34, numeral 1 of the same code, and the text "marriage between individuals of the same sex is prohibited", included in article 35 of the law, which dates from October 2015, of the Code of Private International Law of the country, according to the Panamanian newspaper 'El Century'.

They add that, "no matter how many changes occur in reality," the Supreme Court "does not have the power to decree or proclaim fundamental rights that are not positivized."

Currently, in addition to not recognizing marriage between people of the same gender, discrimination against LGTBI people is not recognized in Panama, an anomalous situation that drew the attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which on several occasions has asked the country to recognize the rights of these people.