Zagreb Court’s same-sex ruling paves way for adoption by LGBTIQ partners

"The decision means that all life partners, all gay and lesbian couples, can request without fear evaluation for adoption to see if they are fit to adopt or not," he said.  [Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images]

The Zagreb Administrative Court has made a historic decision in the “Kožić and Šegota” case of a same-sex couple. The ruling paves the way for all lifelong partners to adopt, Daniel Martinović, who heads Croatia’s Rainbow Families association said on Wednesday.

“The decision means that all life partners, all gay and lesbian couples, can request without fear evaluation for adoption to see if they are fit to adopt or not,” Martinović told a news conference outside the court.

Mladen Kožić and Ivo Šegota launched the case in 2016 because a social welfare centre rejected their request to undergo evaluation as possible adoptive parents just because they were in a partnership. In 2020 the couple were granted the right to provide foster care. 

Martinović noted that the ruling was still not final and appealed to the country’s ministry of labour, pensions, family and social policy not to appeal against it, respecting last year’s constitutional court ruling granting a universal right to provide foster care under equal terms to all citizens.       

(Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

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