8 July 2021: Bolivia’s national civil registry (Registro de Servicio Cívico, SERECÍ) has discriminated against a lesbian couple by rejecting their application to register their relationship as a union, Human Rights Watch said today. All civil registries in the country should start legally recognizing same-sex relationships.
The lesbian couple, foreign citizens who legally reside in Bolivia, applied to La Paz civil registry in May 2021 to register a civil union, their lawyers told Human Rights Watch. In a June letter to those lawyers, the civil registry asserted that there is no current procedure to register same-sex unions in the country. The couple has begun administrative proceedings to appeal the decision. The letter ignores that the civil registry recognized the union of David Aruquipa and Guido Montaño, a gay couple, in December 2020, based on a court order. The civil registry claimed it needs to wait until Bolivia’s Plurinational Constitutional Court reviews the lower court ruling ordering Aruquipa and Montano’s registration.
“The national civil registry seems intent on doubling down on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “That only one same-sex couple in Bolivia has been able to register their union so far is unjust, and the civil registry should immediately give everyone the same opportunity to have their relationships legally recognized.”
Continue Reading: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/08/bolivia-lesbian-couple-denied-registration-union (source)
Listening to Lesbians 