Cabinet rejects bill on banning same-sex marriage citing existing prohibition in Constitution

The Cabinet today issued a negative conclusion for the bill submitted by MP Tigran Urikhanyan on amending the Family Code of Armenia.

Deputy minister of labor and social affairs Arsen Manukyan said that the lawmaker proposes to add a ban on same-sex marriage in the code’s marriage regulations, thus ruling out same-sex marriages.

“Article 35 of the Constitution already defines that marriage is possible [only] between a man and a woman. In addition, the necessary conditions for marriage are also stipulated in Article 10 of the Family Code, according to which a marriage registration requires mutual consent between the man and the woman, as well as marriageable age – 18 or above,” the deputy minister said.

The Cabinet rejected MP Tigran Urikhanyan’s bill because the Constitution already bans same-sex marriage.

In order to avoid misinterpretations and manipulations, caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked the deputy minister: “Suppose two men or two women enter a [marriage registration office] and say they want to marry…is there any legislative way or possibility for their marriage to be in fact registered?”

The deputy minister said there is no such possibility, since the Constitution Cleary states that a marriage can be registered between a man and a woman.