{"id":22007,"date":"2021-02-09T15:08:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T12:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/?p=22007"},"modified":"2021-02-10T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T12:24:58","slug":"lesbian-mother-of-stateless-baby-takes-citizenship-fight-to-top-eu-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/lesbian-mother-of-stateless-baby-takes-citizenship-fight-to-top-eu-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesbian mother of stateless baby takes citizenship fight to top EU court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Thomson Reuters Foundation news<\/a><\/strong>
\nBy Emma Batha<\/em><\/p>\n

LONDON, Feb 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A baby left without a nationality after she was born in Spain to a same-sex couple from Bulgaria and Gibraltar is at the centre of a test case to be heard by the European Union’s top court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Lawyers say Bulgaria has put one-year-old “Baby S” at risk of prolonged statelessness after refusing to provide a birth certificate and citizenship because of discrimination towards her parents’ sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

The hearing at the Luxembourg-based court is being seen as an important test case for many other so-called “rainbow families” in Europe who face similar dilemmas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experts on statelessness say if “Baby S” cannot acquire citizenship she may not be able to go to school, access healthcare and state benefits, or get jobs later in life.<\/p>\n

Her parents, who live near Barcelona, have not yet been able to introduce their daughter to their families abroad because they cannot get her a passport.<\/p>\n

After she was born in December 2019, “Baby S” received a birth certificate in Spain listing both her mothers.<\/p>\n

However when her Bulgarian mother, who uses the pseudonym Kalina, requested a Bulgarian birth certificate for her daughter so she could apply for citizenship, she said officials told her a baby could not have two mothers.<\/p>\n

Bulgaria’s constitution defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman.<\/p>\n

“It’s caused us a lot of upset. This discrimination feels very personal and has shocked us,” Kalina told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.<\/p>\n

“I want to tell (the court) I’m her mother no matter which country I’m in. It’s very unfortunate that I can be her mother in Spain … but I can’t be her mother in my own home country.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The couple cannot obtain Spanish citizenship for their daughter as neither of them is a Spanish national.<\/p>\n

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on Spain’s southern tip but British laws mean Kalina’s wife cannot pass on her British citizenship as she acquired it by descent.<\/p>\n

Kalina’s lawyer will urge the Court of Justice of the European Union to request Bulgaria provide “Baby S” with a birth certificate and nationality.<\/p>\n

The Luxembourg-based court, which ensures EU countries comply with the bloc’s laws, is also considering a similar case where Poland refused to issue a birth certificate for a child born in Spain to Polish and Irish mothers.<\/p>\n

“This ruling will be important for many people,” said Kalina’s lawyer Denitsa Lyubenova.<\/p>\n

“There are a lot of same-sex couples in Europe in the same position, whose children are at risk of statelessness because EU member states in central and eastern Europe do not recognise their family status.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said she\u00a0will push for mutual recognition of family relations<\/a>\u00a0in the European Union under a new strategy to strengthen LGBT+ rights.<\/p>\n

“If you are (a) parent in one country, you are (a) parent in every country,” she told the European Parliament last year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more about the problem in the blog of The European Network on Statelessness ‘Protecting the right to a nationality for children of same-sex couples in the EU \u2013 A key issue before the CJEU in V.M.A. v Stolichna Obsthina (C-490\/20)’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by C\u00e9dric Puisney<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Thomson Reuters Foundation news By Emma Batha LONDON, Feb 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A baby left without a nationality after she was born in Spain to a same-sex couple from Bulgaria and Gibraltar is at the centre of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[155,352,450],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-22007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-childrensrights-en","tag-lgbti-rights-en","tag-stateless-people"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t