- Title
- Conscientious objection to performing same-sex marriage in South Africa
- Creator
- Kruuse, Helen
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/129186
- Identifier
- vital:36228
- Identifier
- https://doi.org/10.1093/lawfam/ebu001
- Description
- This article considers whether public servants should be exempt from South Africa’s equality provisions and anti-discrimination legislation in solemnizing same-sex marriages. In order to deal with this question, the article analyses the treatment of freedom of conscience and conscientious objection by comparing the solemnization of same-sex marriage by public servants, with another public service: that of terminations of pregnancy. While each situation will inevitably turn on the particular circumstances of the case, I argue that there should be a content-neutral guiding principle (as well as consistency) in dealing with these situations. The issue in each situation is narrowed to whether a civil servant’s personal convictions can override the state’s secular obligations in providing a service, and whether there is room for a qualified right to conscientious objection. By analysing the matter in this way, it is clear that the unqualified statutory exemption clause in South Africa’s Civil Union Act is constitutionally objectionable.
- Format
- 27 pages, pdf
- Language
- English
- Relation
- International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, Kruuse, H., 2014. Conscientious Objection to Performing Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 28(2), pp.150-176., International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family volume 28 number 2 150 176 August 2014 1464-3707
- Rights
- Oxford University Press
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Oxford Academic Journals Open Access Policy Statement (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access)
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Collections
Kruuse, Helen (Mrs)
Gender Action Forum (GENACT)
RU Department of Law
SDG 05. Gender Equality
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