divorce petition

In C. v. Australia, Human Rights Committee (UN Human Rights Committee, ICCPR), C., a dual citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom, lived in a same-sex relationship with A. in Victoria and later Queensland. The couple agreed to have a child, with C. as the birth mother. They later traveled to Canada, where they were legally married. Shortly after, the couple separated. C., who remained the sole caregiver of the child, lost contact with A. and sought to formally dissolve the marriage.

Article 155 of the Civil Code sets out various grounds for divorce, including adultery, cruel treatment and serious insults, abandonment, and de facto separation for a specified period, among others. Under Article 158, the innocent spouse may initiate divorce proceedings, but must do so within six months from the time they became aware of the act that constitutes grounds for divorce. Article 163 also permits divorce by mutual consent, provided that both spouses agree and jointly submit the petition to the court.

The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Ordinance 1961, as consolidated in 2021, governs divorce, nullity, judicial separation, and related matters in Samoa. A marriage may be declared void for lack of consent, bigamy, or improper solemnization, and voidable for non-consummation, incapacity, venereal disease, or pregnancy by another person. A divorce requires proof that the marriage is irretrievably broken, generally after 12 months of separation, though domestic violence may justify dispensing with that requirement.

A woman was being divorced by her husband on the grounds that her testing HIV-positive endangered his life. Although her salary contributed to the mortgage payments for the house, the High Court ordered that she be consigned to the servants’ quarters and denied custody of her children, pending the hearing for her husband’s petition for divorce. She sought a stay of execution of the High Court’s order in her application. The Court of Appeal noted that it is trite law that children be placed with their mother unless there were good reasons not to do so.

In Judgment no. 1070 of December 9, 2016, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela reaffirmed the doctrine of remedy divorce, which authorizes judges to grant divorce when it is impossible to continue marital life. The Court held that in cases of irreconcilable conflict within a marriage, divorce may be decreed as a means to protect the family and reduce the emotional burden on its members, even if the traditional grounds for divorce under the law (such as adultery or abuse) are not present.