On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the law on same-sex partnerships, the NGO Zagreb Pride honoured current SDP MP and former Minister of Administration Arsen Bauk with the 'Pride's Life Partner of the Decade' charter on Monday and expressed the hope that their rights will continue to be promoted.

The Social Democratic Party has never given up its commitment to the fight for gender equality and sexual orientation and will never do so, said Karlo Vedak, chairman of the SDP’s Queer Forum.

“To those in power, I say: it is time for progress and for them to stop ignoring the current needs and demands of the LGBTIQ community. It’s time for progress on transgender rights, a response to hate speech and hate crime, and comprehensive sex education,” he added.

Equal access for life partners to various labour, social and pension rights

With the adoption of this law, marriages, extramarital cohabitations, civil partnerships and informal cohabitations have been recognised as family communities, said Franko Dota, representative of Zagreb Pride.

Immediately after the adoption, Zagreb Pride announced that the Law on Life Partnerships is a significant step forward for all human rights in Croatia, especially for more equality, dignity and rights of LGBT people.

This law puts same-sex partnerships on an equal footing with heterosexual ones and thus fulfils the legislature’s constitutional obligation to respect all citizens regardless of their differences, the then SDP government said at the time.

The law contains a number of provisions that regulate certain life issues that have been confirmed in practise over these ten years, Dota said, adding that these provisions concern equal access of civil partners to various labour, social and pension rights.

10.000 citizens in Croatia live in informal partnerships

He also mentioned that according to the statistics of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, 710 civil partnerships were concluded by March this year. He estimated that about 10,000 citizens or 5,000 couples live in informal partnerships, which are fully equated with extramarital partnerships.

As Minister of Administration at the time, Bauk was one of the key players in the passing of this law. He was awarded the title of ‘Honorary Lesbian’ by the NGO ZbeLeTron in 2014 for his dedicated work on the law.

Bauk, who thanked Zagreb Pride for the recognition, said on Monday that the law puts same-sex partnerships on an equal footing with heterosexual partnerships in all respects, except for the right to adopt children, after which the Constitutional Court has made several decisions granting this right to both formal and informal same-sex partnerships.