Juan Ameen
Unfair clause removed
'Law was in violation of the right to have a family life'
A landmark judgment has led to the law governing adoptions to be changed, doing away with the need for couples to have been married for at least three years before being able to adopt children.
The law stipulated that couples had to be married for at least three years before they could adopt but such a condition did not apply to singles and cohabiting couples. Last October, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo, sitting in the constitutional court, deemed this clause to be discriminatory and the provision was removed last month. The offending clause referred to those "who have been married for a period of not less than three years and are living together". The wording now speaks of people "who have been married to each other and living together".
The amendment to the law came into force last month after it was published in the Government Gazette on February 9. The change was mentioned by Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano last week while speaking at a conference about families and the law courts.
It all started when Ruth Debono Sultana and her husband Silvio Debono filed a constitutional application against the Department for Standards in Social Protection and the Social Policy Minister arguing that the law was in violation of their right to have a family life.
The couple had lived together for five years but could not get married as they were awaiting the annulment of Mr Debono's first marriage. However, once married, they found they were unable to adopt children because the law stipulated they had to be married for at least five years. The law was changed in 2009 and the time-frame was reduced to three years.
The law had to be amended again following Mr Justice Caruana Demajo's ruling.
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j grech
Mar 17th 2010, 22:19
@ colin stanley , i do not know the reason why a couple have to have been married at least three years before applying to adopt i have not heard of this requirement in the uk, perhaps this is only required here in malta but i may be wrong, at the moment the catholic church are fighting against gay rights to adoption and may win, certain exemptions do exist and the church are fighting it based on the beliefs and teachings of the catholic religion,the church has threatened to stop finding homes for children if those children risk being raised by same sex partners, i do believe it to be discriminating against married couples in favour of same sex partners who do not even have to be married but thats my personal opinion, in malta gay marriages do not happen so why should they be allowed to adopt and a married couple have to wait 3 yrs, after all gay partners have no marriage certificate to prove how long they have been in a relationship
colin stanley
Mar 16th 2010, 23:41
@ J. Grech. so why do straight married couples have to be married for 3 years before being allowed to adopt? is this some sort of discrimination?
j grech
Mar 16th 2010, 22:09
@ colin stanley, yes a gay woman either single or in a relationship with her gay partner can adopt and so can a gay man single or in a relationship with his gay partner, also single woman,single men, and disabled, ( not handicapped ) under eu law of equal oppotunity, also the same rules apply with fostering, the uk has fought this time and again as children also have the right to two parents male and female not two mother figures or two father figures but the eu won both times .
colin stanley
Mar 16th 2010, 09:15
So ,does a gay woman have the right to adopt?
Peter Vella
Mar 15th 2010, 11:47
One of the arguments against the introduction of divorce is that the stability of marriage will be threatened. In spite of this we know that numerous couples split up every year and many end up living with another partner. Clealy these relationships do not have the same lwgal status as marriage and are not as stable because they can be dissolved easily. Yet slowly slowly we are removing th distinction and this is one example. This is simply illogical. We are creating a parallel arrangement to marriage so that we do not introduce divorce! We cannot continue on this road, Malta needs the intorduction of divorce.
C Micallef
Mar 15th 2010, 10:30
Prosit tassew!!! So, a 15-year married couple that has tried all possible medical interventions will now be placed in the same waiting list for adoption! This is what we call fairness!!