ZAGREB, 26 May 2022 - The Dugine obitelji (Rainbow Families) NGO said on Thursday the High Administrative Court delivered a precedent ruling that all life partners may be evaluated for adoption suitability and must not be discriminated against on sexual orientation grounds.

"They can no longer discriminate against you based on sexual orientation, they can turn you down based on some criteria," said the NGO's president, Daniel Martinović.

He said there might be difficulties based on discrimination, but hoped there would not be any, calling on everyone who encountered obstacles to contact the NGO.

The court dismissed the relevant ministry's argument that same-sex couples should not be assessed for adoption for the sake of "protecting the child's interest", he said, adding that the ministry can no longer appeal.

Dugine obitelji said the ruling had far-reaching consequences for LGBTIQ and same-sex couples' rights as it practically equated their rights and those of married couples. The ruling allows all same-sex couples to decide to start a family by adopting, it added.

Life partners Mladen Kožić and Ivo Šegota, whom the family ministry rejected for adoption in 2016 because they had become life partners, said they were happy with the ruling and the fact that "after six years state institutions will start treating our family as all other families."

In April 2021, the Zagreb Administrative Court found in favour of Kožić and Šegota, but the ministry appealed the ruling. After a year, the High Administrative Court dismissed the appeal.

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ZAGREB, 27 Jan 2022 - A government official on Thursday rejected opposition amendments asking that persons eligible to provide foster care should also include formal and informal life partners, which Domagoj Hajduković (Social Democrats) called discrimination against same-sex partners wishing to be foster parents.

The amendments are rejected, the article which you are asking to be amended is not subject to amendment of the Foster Care Act, Social Welfare Ministry State Secretary Marija Pletikosa said in a comment on amendments put forward by the Green-Left Bloc, the Social Democrats as well as independent MP Furio Radin, who is part of the parliamentary majority and who put forward a proposal to that effect by Hajduković.

"It is our duty as MPs, in line with rulings of the Constitutional Court, to intervene in that legal provision so as to prevent discrimination of some citizens in terms of provision of foster care," they said.

Hajduković admitted that the said article was not subject to legal changes, but noted that it required intervention because "there is evident discrimination against citizens who want to be foster parents and are possibly same-sex life partners."

We are indirectly telling those people not to apply to provide foster care while children's homes are full of children, this is discrimination against a part of the population as well as against children who need foster care, Hajduković said.

No reason why ideological tenets should be more important than children's welfare

Hajduković was supported by MP Urša Raukar Gamulin (Green-Left Bloc), who said that "a large number of children are waiting for foster care, there are not enough foster parents, and there is no reason whatsoever why some ideological tenets should be more important to us than children's welfare".

Raukar Gamulin warned that the law "allows a child abuser to be a foster parent" while same-sex partners are not desirable. That's is truly a disgrace, she said.

Government representative Pletikosa also rejected a proposal by the Social Democratic Party that the parliament obliges the government to send it within 30 days, in line with a Constitutional Court ruling, changes to the Foster Care Act in such a way to enable same-sex partners and formal and informal life partners to equally participate in all aspects of social life, including foster care.

Const. Court didn't order that law be amended, competent bodies should interpret it

"The Constitutional Court did not order amendment of the Foster Care Act but determined that competent bodies have the duty to interpret it and apply its provisions in such a way that will enable all persons, under equal conditions, to participate in the provision of foster care, independent of whether a potential foster parent lives in a life or informal life partnership," said Pletikosa.

"You are lying!" said SDP MP Sabina Glasovac, noting that the Court "only said that at that moment, suspension of three articles of the law would result in a legal vacuum that would have a negative impact on the beneficiaries."

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