Hong Kong: Justice expands rights for same-sex couples

Hong Kong’s highest court on Tuesday confirmed the expansion of social housing and inheritance rights for same-sex couples, which the government opposed.

“The Court unanimously rejects” the appeals brought by the Hong Kong government, wrote the chief judge of the local Court of Final Appeal, Andrew Cheung, in two court rulings.

These end a six-year legal battle, which began when Nick Infinger, a permanent resident who married his partner in 2018 in Canada, took the government to court after being prevented with his partner from accessing to social housing, on the grounds that they did not form an “ordinary family”.

“Irrational and unfair”

Another same-sex couple, Henry Li and Edgar Ng, have also been fighting against the local government since 2019, still on the subject of social housing, but also inheritance rules. After Edgar Ng committed suicide a year later, his widower continued the fight.

On the issue of inheritance, the current policy “is not only humiliating, it is irrational and unfair,” argued Nick Infinger and Henry Li’s lawyer, Me Timothy Otty. Under the law, same-sex couples cannot benefit from “husband” and “wife” inheritance rules.

The decisions handed down on Tuesday come after a historic ruling in 2023 by the same Court of Final Appeal, ordering authorities to create within two years an “alternative framework” recognizing the rights of same-sex couples. The Court’s judges, however, also ruled that marriage was “limited to opposite-sex couples.”

“Latest news”

Want to stay on top of the news? “Tribune de Genève” offers you two meetings per day, directly in your email box. So you don’t miss anything that’s happening in your canton, in Switzerland or around the world.

Other newsletters

Log in

AFP

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments