Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic Submits Brief in Landmark Adoption-Rights Case

Media contact: Nancy Goldfarb, 212-854-1584, [email protected]

Public Affairs Office, 212-854-2650, [email protected]

New York, November 13, 2009 – A brief submitted by the Columbia Law School Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic urges the Puerto Rico Supreme Court to allow the non-biological parent in a same-sex couple to adopt the couple’s child.

 

The brief, for In the Matter of A.A.R., argues that international and comparative human rights law supports second-parent adoption rights for children of same-sex couples.

 These adoptions, like step-parent adoptions, allow children to have legally secure relationships with their parents. “Second-parent adoption is critically important to the legal security of parent-child relationships for children being raised by same-sex couples,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, Director of the Columbia Law School Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. “By emphasizing children’s best interests and equal treatment principles, international human rights law reinforces the need to interpret the Commonwealth’s adoption law to protect all children growing up in Puerto Rico.”

 

In the Matter of A.A.R. comes before the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico on appeal after lower courts ruled that Puerto Rico’s adoption statute does not permit second-parent adoption by a same-sex parent. “Our brief shows that limiting adoption in this way violates international human rights law. This body of law is relevant everywhere, but is particularly relevant to Puerto Rico because it incorporated these principles directly into its Constitution,” explained Katie Poynter, a law student who worked on the clinic’s brief.   

 

Citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, numerous U.N. Conventions, and Inter-American and European regional human rights bodies, the Clinic argues there is a growing trend in international law toward protecting children and forbidding sexual orientation discrimination.

 

“In addition to protecting the collective rights of families, international law also protects an individual’s right to establish a family, enjoy that family, and be free from interference regarding that family,” the brief states. “This category of individual family rights has two intertwined guarantees:   Adults have the right to found a family, and all members of that functional family have the right to be free from government interference.”

 

The Clinic’s brief also shows that similar adoption rules have been embraced around the world. Brazil, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Australia and most of Western Europe recognize the right of second-parent adoption, as have the majority of U.S. states.

 

 

Columbia Law School Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic students Katie Poynter, Brian Ward, and Caitlin Boyce wrote the brief together with Professor Suzanne B. Goldberg. Judith Berkan a lawyer in private practice in San Juan, is local counsel on the Clinic’s brief. The University of Puerto Rico Law Clinic represents the family that brought the case.

 

To contact Professor Suzanne B. Goldberg: call (212) 854- 0411 or email [email protected].

 

                                                                       

Columbia Law School’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic addresses cutting edge issues in sexuality and gender law through litigation, legislation, public policy analysis and other forms of advocacy.

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, criminal, and environmental law.

 

Visit us at www.law.columbia.edu.