On January 16, the Grand Chamber is to hear the case Vallianatos and Others v. Greece (Application no. 29381/09). The applicants are six Greek nationals who live in Athens and an association with its registered office in Athens. Some of the applicants live together as couples, while others are in a relationship but do not live together.
Law no. 3719/2008 entered into force in November 2008. It made provision for the first time in Greece for an official alternative to marriage, in the form of “civil unions” (σύμφωνο συμβίωσης). Such unions are reserved exclusively to two different-sex adults.
They are entered into by means of a notarial instrument registered with the civil registry. Relying on Article 8 of the Convention, taken alone and in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention, the applicants complain that the Law, which limits civil unions exclusively to adults of different sex, breaches their right to respect for their private life and the principle of prohibition of discrimination. Under Article 13 of the Convention, the applicants further complain of the absence of an effective remedy in domestic law by which to assert their complaints concerning the alleged violation of Articles 8 and 14 of the Convention before the domestic courts.
The applications were lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on May 6, 2009.
It must be reiterated that on June 3, 2008, the mayor of Tilos, Anastasios Aliferis, married two homosexual couples, two lesbians and two gay men, citing a legal loophole. He was heavily criticized by clergymen of the Church of Greece, which had also opposed the introduction of heterosexual civil marriage, the original intent of the 1982 law. At the time, Justice Minister Sotirios Hatzigakis declared the Tilos marriages "invalid" and Supreme Court prosecutor Georgios Sanidas had warned Aliferis of the legal repercussions of his "breach of duty", but he said he had "no intention of annulling the marriages". The government filed a court motion to annul the two same-sex marriages, stirring demonstrations and protests among the LGBT community.[1]
And then on May 5th, 2009, a court ruled the marriages were invalid, but the couples intended to appeal the ruling, up to the ECHR if necessary. The hearing of the case in the court of appeals was held on January 14, 2011 and the decision came out on April 14, 2011. It also ruled that the two marriages are non existent.
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