Latest news with #AlessandroZan
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Italy's Constitutional Court allows singles to adopt foreign minors, ending a 40-year ban
ROME (AP) — Italy's Constitutional Court ruled Friday that unmarried people can adopt foreign minors, ending a 40-year-ban on the practice and setting a precedent that could pave the way to allowing Italian singles to adopt from within the country. Friday's court ruling declared unconstitutional the exclusion of singles from international adoptions under a 1983 Italian law, which allowed only married couples to pursue international adoptions. According to Italy's top court, the exclusion of single people risked undermining "the effectiveness of the child's right to grow up in a stable and harmonious family environment.' The court decision also reflects concerns among adoption advocates over a downward trend in Italy's international adoption over the past few years, due to increasing difficulties for couples in completing adoptions abroad and the high costs related to the lengthy process. According to Italy's international adoption commission, in the first semester of 2024 international adoption in the country fell by 5.6% from the same period a year before and by 14.3% from the first semester of 2022. Italy's right-wing government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni has opposed singles' adoptions in court, but the country's center-left opposition hailed Friday's ruling as a 'historic turning point.' 'It puts the rights of minors and the freedom of self-determination of every individual first,' said Democratic Party's lawmaker Alessandro Zan, who has promoted battles for the parenting rights of singles and gay couples. 'Now the Italian parliament must intervene, adapt the current legislation and remove every ideological obstacle,' Zan added. 'And let's go further: This right must also be extended to gay couples.' The ruling takes effect immediately. In October, the Meloni government approved new legislation that criminalizes Italian citizens who go abroad to have children through surrogac y, a measure slammed by opponents as 'medieval' and discriminatory to same-sex couples.
Associated Press
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Italy's Constitutional Court allows singles to adopt foreign minors, ending a 40-year ban
ROME (AP) — Italy's Constitutional Court ruled Friday that unmarried people can adopt foreign minors, ending a 40-year-ban on the practice and setting a precedent that could pave the way to allowing Italian singles to adopt from within the country. Friday's court ruling declared unconstitutional the exclusion of singles from international adoptions under a 1983 Italian law, which allowed only married couples to pursue international adoptions. According to Italy's top court, the exclusion of single people risked undermining 'the effectiveness of the child's right to grow up in a stable and harmonious family environment.' The court decision also reflects concerns among adoption advocates over a downward trend in Italy's international adoption over the past few years, due to increasing difficulties for couples in completing adoptions abroad and the high costs related to the lengthy process. According to Italy's international adoption commission, in the first semester of 2024 international adoption in the country fell by 5.6% from the same period a year before and by 14.3% from the first semester of 2022. Italy's right-wing government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni has opposed singles' adoptions in court, but the country's center-left opposition hailed Friday's ruling as a 'historic turning point.' 'It puts the rights of minors and the freedom of self-determination of every individual first,' said Democratic Party's lawmaker Alessandro Zan, who has promoted battles for the parenting rights of singles and gay couples. 'Now the Italian parliament must intervene, adapt the current legislation and remove every ideological obstacle,' Zan added. 'And let's go further: This right must also be extended to gay couples.' The ruling takes effect immediately.
Local Italy
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
Italy's top court rules single people can adopt children from abroad
"The exclusion of single people from the international adoption of minors is unconstitutional," the court said in a press release summing up the ruling. The legal case revolved around a 2019 request by a single woman in Florence to legally adopt a child. Though the original request was denied by a Tuscan court under a 1983 law, the case was forwarded to Italy's Constitutional Court, which was asked to determine whether the woman's rights were being violated. The Rome court found that the law "disproportionately restricted" the rights of aspiring parents who sought to adopt a child in need of a home. The court said that the desire to become a parent "falls within the freedom of self-determination of the person and must be taken into account, together with the multiple and primary interests of the minor". Single people are "suitable to ensure a stable and harmonious environment for a child," it said. It added that, as is the case with married couples, it is up to a judge "to ascertain in concrete terms the emotional suitability of the aspiring parent and his or her ability to educate, instruct and maintain the child". That "may also take into account the family network of reference of the aspiring parent". Alessandro Zan, from the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), described the ruling as "a historic turning point". "Meloni and her government must recognise once and for all that what matters is love, not marital status," he said. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni won the 2022 general election on a campaign stressing the importance traditional family values. "Let's go further now. This right must also be extended to couples of the same sex. Enough discrimination. Enough prejudice," Zan said. Experts said the ruling may now be used by single people seeking legal recourse to adopt children within Italy too.
Euronews
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Growing anti-LGBTIQ narratives sparks 'alarm' across Europe
Attacks against LGBTIQ people are rising across Europe, indicating a worrying trend of normalisation and an increase in discriminatory legislation, according to a new report by ILGA-Europe, an NGO umbrella organisation. Civil society organisations and politicians warn of the spread and political mainstreaming of anti-LGBTIQ narratives across Europe. 'Reading this review, we can only be alarmed and worried," said Ana Carla Pereira, Director of the Equality and Non-discrimination Unit at DG JUST in the European Commission. While acknowledging some progress in recent years, she warned that the overall situation is becoming increasingly troubling. 'This report provides us with a reality check of the work that still needs to be done', agreed MEP Alessandro Zan (Italy/S&D). Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director at ILGA-Europe, emphasised during the report's presentation that anti-LGBTIQ campaigns are paving the way for restrictive legislation in many European countries. She warned that ongoing homophobic and transphobic hate and misinformation campaigns have laid the groundwork for laws such as anti-propaganda laws and foreign agent laws, which, while ostensibly targeting LGBTIQ rights, extend much further—introducing censorship, stigmatisation, and the persecution of human rights defenders and opposition figures. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's so-called "Child Protection Law" has been challenged by the European Commission at the European Court of Justice for allegedly violating EU treaties. Similarly, Bulgaria's anti-propaganda laws have faced widespread EU criticism. 'In 2024, politicians in many countries —including Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Moldova, and Romania— weaponised discriminatory narratives against LGBTIQ people during election periods specifically,' added Hugendubel. One example shown in the report is Belgium, where, in the run-up to the national and regional elections in June, Vlaams Belang, a Flemish nationalist, right-wing political party, "actively promoted anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric through hate speech and bias-motivated discourse." Commission withdrawal of equality initiative The report comes just a week after the European Commission announced the withdrawal of a directive aimed at ensuring equal treatment regardless of age, disability, sexual orientation, or religious belief. Lawmakers and civil society groups have condemned the decision, warning that it weakens the EU's commitment to equality. 'It has been quite a hard hit that the Commission decides to withdraw the horizontal discrimination legislation,' said Kim Van Sparrentak, Dutch MEP from the Greens. 'We have to make sure that the Commission realises that this is not what we want, [...] in the Parliament we were ready to work on it and we are not going to let this happen without a fight," she added. Alessandro Zan also called for new and stronger legislative proposals following this withdrawal as 'giving it up without replacement will waste years and years of political progress'.
