IGLHRC wants to invite you to send congratulation letters to Councilman Pablo Colono, who defended the proposal, originally drafted by the local LGBT organization Vox Asociación Civil.

Please send your congratulation letters to:

Councilman Pablo Colono

pcolono@concejorosario.gov.ar

Vox Asociación Civil

revistavox@yahoo.com

Councilwoman Marta Fassino

bloquesocialista@yahoo.com.ar

Vox Asociación Civil - Santa Fe

voxsantafe@hotmail.com

And please send a copy to:

mferreyra@iglhrc.org

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Below you will find Vox Asociación Civil’s official statement that summarizes the work leading up to this achievement and explains what it means for LGB people in Rosario.

“Rosario city employees who are lesbian, gay and trans widows now have the right to pension.

On Thursday, June 15, the City Council of Rosario, Santa Fe state, Argentina, amended the ordinance creating the city’s Social Security Institute. The amendment recognizes the right of those who “had lived openly in marriage-like fashion for a minimum of 5 (five) years prior to the death of a city state employee, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity” to pension benefits as widows/widowers. Until now, the benefit could only be claimed by those who were legally married.

The initiative was submitted by Pablo Colono, Socialist Party Councilman, and drafted by VOX Asociación Civil (an LGBT organization active in the Santa Fe state). For the first time, a public (or private) institution in Argentina publicly acknowledges the equality of all couples in terms of the right to pension. In the past, there were some juridical precedents granting these right on individual cases.

The proposal states, “it is time to take into account the new family structures of today... By acknowledging the new family structures, the personal right to free determination is also legitimized”. The amendment also stands in agreement with the text of Ordinance 7946, passed in December 2005 (also a proposal drafted by VOX Asociación Civil), known as the “antidiscriminatory ordinance”. Ordinance 7946 states, “Rosario City recognizes and protects the right to be different. Any discrimination tending to segregation under the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religion, ideology, opinion, nationality, physical characters, psychophysical condition, social, economic or any circumstance implying distinction, exclusion, restriction or damage will not be admitted”.

The possibility of granting juridical recognition to couples regardless of the partners’ sexual orientation or gender identity was based on the text of Ordinance 7946.

One of the most significant features of the proposal is that it does not require any special registration or any other procedures different from those that straight widows/widowers need to follow. The straight widow/widower of a city state employee who was not legally married to the deceased can claim a pension by following a simple procedure that includes presenting two witnesses to verify that the claimant and the deceased employee lived in a “marriage-like fashion" during the last 5 (five) years.

Now lesbian, gay and trans widows/widowers of city state employees can follow the same simple procedure to have their right to pension recognized”.

On Thursday, July 6, a similar ordinance was passed in the city of Santa Fe, capital of Santa Fe state. The proposal was authored by Councilwoman Marta Fassino, also based on a proposal by VOX Asociación Civil. Thus, Santa Fe has become the second city in the country that grants this right to same-sex partners of deceased city state employees.

INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW

Right to non-discrimination and to equality before the law: Article 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); Article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC); Article 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); Article 1 and 24 of the Interamerican Human Rights Convention (IAHRC), as well as Article 16 of the Argentinean Constitution.

Right to social security: Article 22 of the UDHR and Article 9 of the ICESCR.

Right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of oneself and of one's family: Article 25 of the UDHR, Article 11/12 of the ICESCR.

Right to the protection of the family: Article 16 of the UDHR, Article 10 of the ICESCR, Article 23 of the ICCPR, Article 17 of the IAHRC, as well as Article 14 of the Argentinean Constitution.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee affirmed in its decision in Toonen v Australia (1994) that existing protections against discrimination in Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) should be understood to include sexual orientation as a protected status. Numerous other human rights mechanisms of the United Nations have subsequently condemned discrimination based on sexual orientation. The UN Committee on Economic and Social Rights has made a similar observation, in its General Comment 14 on the right to health- to be applied to all economic, social and cultural rights.

Argentina ratified ICCPR and ICESCR in 1986, IACHR in 1984 and CRC in 1990. The UDHR is considered customary law for all Member States of the United Nations, including Argentina.

The Santa Fe Province Constitution in its Article 8 states “All the Province inhabitant that are equal before the law. It is the duty of the State to remove every economic and social obstacle that, by limiting individual freedom and equality, impede the community’s free development at political, economical and social level”. Also, the most populated and important city in the Province –Rosario- has an Ordinance that “recognizes and guarantees the right to be different, forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation” (Ordinance 7946, December 2005).

The Argentinean Constitution in its Article 75.22/23 recognizes the prevalence of international treaties over national and local legislation.

The right to pension in the case of one’s partner’s death is granted directly to same-sex widows/widowers in countries whose Marriage Act can be used by same sex couples, like Canada, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. It is also granted in the United Kingdom and Australia since 2005, in Israel by 1994 Judicial sentence, and in South Africa by the 1996 Special Pension Act Number 69.

In Latin America this right had been granted in Brazil by a judicial sentence of February 2003. It already has precedents in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and the cities of Pelotas, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Judicial decisions recognizing the right to pension of same sex couples have also been issued in Argentina and Uruguay.