The petitioners were same-sex couples from various U.S. states who challenged the constitutionality of bans on same-sex marriage in those states. They claimed that the bans violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause protects individuals from the arbitrary denial of life, …Read more

Duque and his same-sex partner lived together as a couple for over ten years, until his partner died from AIDS. Four years prior to the death, Duque was diagnosed with HIV and was being treated under support from his partner. When his partner died, Duque asked the COLFONDOS (the pension service) to ask what requirements …Read more

The applicant, H., was born male, married a woman, and had a child. She was diagnosed as transgender during the course of the marriage, whereupon she changed her first names and renewed her passport and driver’s license. However, her request to have her identity number changed was refused based on sections 1 and 2 of …Read more

In 1996, the plaintiff, Mrs. Hadijatou Mani Koraou, was sold at the age of 12 to 46-year-old Mr. El Hadj Souleymane Naroua, for the sum of two hundred and forty-thousand francs. This transaction occurred as a “Wahiya,” a common practice in the Republic of Niger, which consists in acquiring a young girl, generally of servile status, to serve as both …Read more

RM’s mother was living with, but not married to, RM’s father at the time of her birth. Although RM’s father paid hospital expenses for her birth, shortly thereafter, RM’s father ceased contact with RM’s mother and provided no parental support. Under section 24(3) of the Children Act (the “Act”), only parents that were married had …Read more

The appellants E and N, a homosexual couple who had lived together for 38 years and publicly represented themselves as partners, were denied a spousal allowance for N under section 19(1) of the federal Old Age Security Act 1985 (“Act”) solely on the basis that their relationship was of a homosexual nature and thus did …Read more