The magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber gave the Legislative Assembly one and a half years to decide on equal marriage. In addition, they favored the unconstitutionality actions that ban same sex unions. This was announced by magistrate Fernando Castillo on Wednesday night.
Since 9 p.m. a group of people was demonstrating outside the chamber in favor of the legal actions for same-sex marriage. These actions were filed in 2013 and 2015 and sought to declare the unconstitutional nature of those articles that prohibit the union between two people of the same sex, or ensure the rights of heterosexual couples only.
This Wednesday, the Constitutional Chamber ruled in favor of the action of unconstitutionality against subparagraph 6) of article 14 of the Family Code stating that:
By majority, the actions proposed by Castillo Rojas, Elizondo Arias, and Flores-Estrada Pimentel are declared valid.”
While the magistrates decided, a movement made up of organizations, institutions and recognized figures of national policy -including four former presidents of the Republic- demanded that the Chamber comply with the provisions of the Advisory Opinion issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Corte IDH) in January.
The Ombudsman believes that the Advisory Opinion of the IDH Court already sent a strong message about the recognition of the dignity and rights of the LGTBI population; by ordering that all existing rights in the legislation, including the right to marriage, be guaranteed without any discrimination against homosexual couples,”
said the defense body in a call to the magistrates.
The Constitutional Chamber confirmed that the results of these votes would be known during the first half of August.