Northern Ireland

The applicant was a gay man from Northern Ireland. He filed a complaint with the European Commission on Human Rights claiming that (a) the existence, in the criminal law in force in Northern Ireland, of various offences capable of relating to male homosexual conduct and the investigation into his activities constituted an unjustified interference with his right to respect for his private life, in breach of Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention; (b) he had suffered discrimination, within the meaning of Article 14 of the Convention, on grounds of sex, sexuality, and residence.

The Equal Pay Act (Northern Ireland) 1970, as amended, mandates the same pay for women and men for the same (or equivalent) work, in line with European Community requirements. 

The 2006 Regulations define discrimination based on sexual orientation. Furthermore, they detail what constitutes discrimination on sexual orientation, including the refusal to provide services. They also extend liability for discriminatory acts of employees to their employer, and similarly for an agent relationship.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal reversed a trial court dismissal of an application by the Family Planning Association of Northern Ireland (FPANI) seeking a declaration that the Northern Ireland Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety acted unlawfully in failing to issue advice and/or guidance to women of child-bearing age and to clinicians in Northern Ireland on the availability and provision of termination of pregnancy services in Northern Ireland. 

Under section 15 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act, it is an offence to obtain sexual services from a person for payment or the promise of payment.  The Act does not make it an offence to sell sexual services, however. The Act also prohibits forced marriage (Art. 16). The Act requires the government to provide assistance to victims of trafficking and support to those who want to exit sex work (“prostitution”) (Art. 18). Committing any prohibited offence against a child is an aggravating factor (Art. 6(1)).

The High Court of Justice of Northern Ireland granted in part an application for judicial review brought by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children for an order quashing the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety’s publication “Guidance on the Termination of Pregnancy: The Law and Clinical Practice in Northern Ireland” and the lower court’s declaration that the Department’s decision to publish the Guidance was unlawful. The Court ordered the guidance withdrawn for reconsideration.

The High Court of Northern Ireland let stand a permanent ban on blood donation by any man who had engaged in same-sex sexual acts, despite the fact that other parts of the UK allow donations from men who had been celibate for at least a year.  The High Court found no evidence of “apparent bias” in the ban, rather that it was based on an objective analysis of precautionary principles.

A Northern Ireland bakery that refused to bake a cake iced with the message “Support Gay Marriage” on the basis of the owners’ religious beliefs, was found in violation of anti-discrimination laws by a county court.  The county court found discrimination both on grounds of sexual orientation and on grounds of religious belief or political opinion.

This Act legalized same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. §8(1) of the Act requires the Secretary of State to make regulations in respect of same sex marriage, to come into force on or before 13 January 2020, specifically to make provision so that two persons of the same sex are eligible to marry and two persons who are not of the same sex may form a civil partnership in Northern Ireland.

In 2013, the Court of Appeal struck down a ban on adoption by same-sex and unmarried couples.