Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 15:23:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Ron Buckmire Subject: AUSTRIA: Parliament fails to enact age of consent reform law Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 18:02:36 +0000 From: Kurt Krickler AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO REFORM AGE OF CONSENT LAW BUT FOR THE FIRST TIME RECOGNISES SAME-SEX PARTNERSHIPS On Friday, 17 July 1998, Austrian Parliament's conservative majority (Christian Democrats and far right-wing Freedom Party) voted down an amendment to a penal code reform bill providing for the repeal of Article 209, the discriminatory age of consent law (18 for gay men contrary to 14 for heterosexuals and lesbians). The Austrian Parliament, thus, ignored both the decision of the European Human Rights Commission in the Sutherland versus United Kingdom case ruling that an unequal age of consent is a violation of the European Human Rights Convention and two urgent demands by the European Parliament in 1997 and 1998 which had called upon Austria, on the occasion of the adoption of the annual reports and resolutions on the observance of human rights in the EU, to repeal the unequal age of consent law. Only the members of the Green and the Liberal parties voted in favour of abolishing Article 209. The largest group, the Social-Democrates, was in a great dilemma and left the plenary in a move unheard of before, because they did not want to vote against the amendment but neither to vote for it and thus to breach the government coalition agreement with the conservative party. With the same penal code reform bill, Parliament voted, however, the inclusion of same-sex partners in the definition of "next of kin" (or significant others) in Article 72 of the Penal Code regulating the right to refuse to testify in court against certain family members. This is a real precedent - for the first time, same-sex partners have been recognised in Austria's legal system, reports Kurt Krickler from Vienna. This amendment was tabled by the Liberal Party in the Parliament's Law Committee during the negotiations leading up to the penal code reform Bill according to a proposal made by the gay and lesbian organisation HOSI Wien in its statement in the hearing process of the draft bill. --- RON BUCKMIRE http://abacus.oxy.edu/~ron/ Asst. Prof., Math Dept., Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, L.A., CA 90041 ron@abacus.oxy.edu||+1 213 259 2536 (v)||+1 213 259 2958 (f)||GORE-BOXER 2000 Fighting for the