Taddeucci and McCall V Italy: third party intervention before the European Court
Taddeucci, a national of Italy, and McCall, a national of New Zealand, are an unmarried same-sex couple who moved together to Italy to be close to Taddeucci’s family. But McCall was denied a residency visa.
The visa was denied on the grounds that he was neither a “spouse” nor a family member of an Italian citizen. The Italian courts refused to recognize their relationship, forcing the couple to leave Italy in order to be able to live together.
They applied to the European Court, arguing that their rights to non-discrimination and to the enjoyment of family life had been violated.
The ICJ, ILGA-Europe and NELFA submitted a joint third party intervention arguing that conditioning residency on marital status constitutes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, given that in many countries same-sex couples are denied access to marriage, and that unmarried couples are families regardless of formal legal status. As families, their relationship should be leally recognised and protected by the state.
Italy-Taddeucci_&_McCall_v_Italy-legal submission-2012-Eng (text in PDF)
