Zelenskyy: Ministry of Justice drafting bill on same-sex partnerships

The Justice Ministry on the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is drawing up a draft law on the establishment of an "institute of civil partnerships" in Ukraine. Zelenskyy said this in his response to the electronic petition "For Registered Partnerships for Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples, in Support of Bill No. 9103 ‘On the Institute of Registered Partnerships’".

As reported, draft law No. 9103 was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada in early March by Inna Sovsun, an MP of the “Holos” party.

According to the President, "the Ukrainian state has consciously chosen to move towards European standards", one of which is "the prohibition of discrimination", but allowing same-sex marriage in the country is still not allowed by Article 51 of the Constitution, according to which "marriage is based on the free consent of woman and man".

"Under conditions of martial law or state of emergency, the Constitution of Ukraine cannot be changed (Article 157 of the Constitution)," Zelenskyy continues. “That is why I addressed the Cabinet of Ministers with a proposal to work on the issue of establishing an institution of registered civil partnership. As part of its National Human Rights Strategy, the government has instructed the Ministry of Justice to draft and submit to the Cabinet of Ministers a bill to eliminate discriminatory provisions that may violate the property and non-property rights of unmarried partners and to establish an institution of registered civil partnership. The Ministry of Justice is now working on a comprehensive legislative introduction of the Institute of civil partnership.”

As for Inna Sovsun's draft law, the President said that the relevant parliamentary committees and authorised government bodies had made "comments and suggestions" about a number of its provisions, "which require improvement". Nevertheless, Zelenskyy appealed to the Speaker of the Parliament "with a request to consider the issue raised in the electronic petition".

As earlier reported, draft law No 9103 proposed to grant same-sex couples the same rights that traditional families have "by default".