The European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in the case "Maimulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine", in which it ruled that the lack of legal recognition and protection of same-sex couples violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

 The European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights in conjunction with Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life).

 The case concerned the legal recognition and protection of same-sex couples in Ukraine.

 The Court found, inter alia, that the applicants were treated differently from heterosexual couples due to the lack of any legal recognition and protection for them, and that their sexual orientation was the only basis for the discrimination against them.

 The ECtHR considers that the state did not provide any justification for different treatment of them. In particular, the broadly formulated goal of protecting the traditional family cannot in itself be accepted as a valid reason justifying the refusal of any legal recognition and protection of same-sex couples, the court said.

 The court ruled that Ukraine should pay each of the applicants 32 euros in compensation for material damages, 5,000 euros in compensation for moral damages to each of them, and 4,000 euros in joint and several compensation for court costs and expenses.

 It will be recalled that at the end of May, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Romania violates the rights of same-sex couples by not allowing them to register civil partnerships, and obliged it to provide such an opportunity.