Registered partnership in Switzerland

The Partnership Act ( PPA) (French Loi sur le partenariat ( LPart ), Italian Legge sull'unione domestica registrata ( LUD) ) is a Swiss federal law that allows gay couples to register their relationship under the civil status " registered partnership ". It was adopted on 5 June 2005 in a referendum, with 58 percent of the vote and entered into force on 1 January 2007. Previously, a cantonal law was approved by a plebiscite on Canton Zurich.

Content

The entry is the homosexual couples mostly married couples alike, about the duty of assistance, in tax law and in dealing with insurance such as old-age and survivors' insurance ( AHV). However, the partnership shaft Act prohibits persons in a registered partnership, adoption and access to reproductive health (Art. 28 PPA).

In the course of entry into force of the new naming rights on 1 January 2013 and registered partners can carry a common family name. The registered partnership is thus equated also with regard to the naming rights of marriage. By the end of 2012, the law provided no common family name; in the Federal Council were but noted that "nothing prevents a pair to form an alliance names in everyday life ," by any " own name those appends the others ." As long as a person remains identifiable, they could even use the name of the partner in the sense of a " stage name ".

The registered partnership has no effects on the rights of citizenship, only the residence requirement for naturalization of foreign registered partner of Swiss citizens is reduced (five years of residence in Switzerland, three years partnership ).

Foreign registered partnerships are generally recognized under the same provisos as foreign marriages (Article 65a of the Federal Act on Private International Law ); foreign same-sex marriages are valid here as a registered partnership (Article 45 § 3 of the Federal Act on Private International Law ).

Formation

The Partnership Act was passed by the National Assembly and the Council and came because of the conclusion of the optional referendum to the people. Opponents of the law complained, it weakens the position of the family, accelerating the introduction of the possibility of adoption for same-sex couples and giving rise to a very small part of the population has a disproportionately heavy burden.

The major parties were the Partnership Act mainly towards positive. The Greens, the SP, the CVP and the FDP had issued the 'yes' slogan. The SVP, the EPP and the EDU rejected the law.

The Council of the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches (SEK) endorsed the partnership law, but stressed that it constitutes no marriage.

Switzerland is the first country to have the registration of homosexual couples approved by a referendum.

The original was discarded in 7 of the 26 cantons. These are the more rural and predominantly Catholic cantons of Jura, Valais, Ticino, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Uri, Schwyz, and Thurgau.

Effect

According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office in the first five months of the entry into force of the Partnership Act 1127 have same-sex couples to register their partnership at the register office of their residential community, with 813 pairs, the partners were male, with 314 pairs female. After an onslaught beginning of the year the numbers have declined slightly over the months. There are also significant regional differences. Many registered partnerships, there are, especially in the cities, while the numbers are smaller in rural areas. Representatives of civil status offices comment positively to previous experience.

In all cantons under the new legal institution of registered partnership were close adaptations of cantonal laws, which is not met with significant resistance. One example is the Canton of Geneva, in the case of a referendum on the adaptation of the cantonal inheritance tax in May 2007, around 83 percent of voters exemption from inheritance tax for same-sex couples who have registered their partnership advocated.

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