European Court of Human Rights. | Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Ralf Roletschek

The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, on Tuesday fined Croatia for discriminating against same-sex couples by not granting residence permits to couples in which one partner comes from abroad.

The case was brought by Bosnian national Danka Pajic who claimed the Croatian authorities breach her right to a family and a private life by not granting her a residence permit in 2011 on the basis of her union with her female Croatian partner.

The court ruled that Pajic was entitled to the same treatment as other foreigners have in marriages or non-marital partnerships and issued a 10,000 euro fine and another 5,690 euro in court fees, which Croatia must also pay Pajic.

The Croatian police had refused to grant her a temporary residence permit, quoting the Aliens’ Act of 2011, which grants permit only to foreigners in heterosexual marriages or non-marital partnerships.

Without this right, she could only spend a maximum of three months in every half year in Croatia.

The LGBT association Zagreb Pride took up Pajic’s case, trying to prove that although Croatian law does not offer residence rights to same-sex partners, that right is already enshrined by the ECHR, which has ruled that all human rights enjoyed by partners in marriages and unions must be at the disposition of same-sex couples as well.

Marko Jurcic, from Zagreb Pride, said he and Pajic went through all the various legal layers in Croatia – the administrative court, higher administrative court and constitutional court – before reaching the ECHR.

“Through this decision by the police and the law, Croatia was directly meddling in the most intimate part of a couple, a decision to start a life together,” he said.

“There was a legal obstacle preventing couples from achieving a basic human right, the right to a private and family life,” he added.

Before the case got to the ECHR, he said, the LGBT community has raised it with the then Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko – now Vice Prime Minister – who refused to amend the law so that same-sex couples were not discriminated against.

“This decision has proven the systematic discrimination against same-sex couples by the state, as we said more than once. Because the state authorities were stubborn and irrational, they are now going to have to pay,” he said.

“This has proven that the will to persevere in achieving one’s rights pays out in the end,” Jurcic concluded.

In 2014, Croatia introduced lifetime partnerships regulating same-sex partnerships, granting them all the rights of married couples with the exception of the right to adopt.

A total of 11,410 lawsuits were filed before ECHR against Croatia between 1997 and May 2015. Of that figure, 286 judgments were passed and 3.3 million euro in fines issued for Croatia.