Duque v. Colombia, which was brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, concerns the refusal to recognize the right of a homosexual person to a survivor´s pension. At the time, Colombian law did not give same-sex couple this right. The claimant –Angel Alberto Duque– filed a writ for protection of his constitutional rights to obtain the pension. The ruling and appeal held that the writ was not the appropriate form to use in a pension request and that the defendant should follow regular judicial procedures. The Colombian Constitutional Court subsequently did not review the case. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights brought the case before the Inter-American Court after Colombia had failed to comply with the Commission´s recommendations of 2014. The Inter-American Court declared that Colombia, in having denied the survivor´s pension to Duque since 2002, had violated his right to equality and non-discrimination provided by the American Convention on Human Rights. The Court stated that Colombia had provided access to survivor´s pensions only to heterosexual couples and had failed to provide an “objective and reasonable justification” for the differential treatment. The Court ordered that the State ensure that Duque receive priority processing for his survivor´s pension application
Keywords:
gender discrimination, survivors' pensions, right to health, HIV
Author Biography
Katerine Bermúdez Alarcón, Universidad Externado de Colombia
Profesora de la Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Bermúdez Alarcón, K. (2017). The judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Duke vs. Colombia: pensional rights of same-sex couples. Revista Chilena De Derecho Del Trabajo Y De La Seguridad Social, 8(15), 181–191. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-7551.2017.47390
