LGBT movement's legal strategies and the christian social movement reaction in Colombia

• Autor(a) principal: Penen, Lina Malagón
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Estudos Empíricos em Direito
• Texto Completo: https://reedrevista.org/reed/article/view/60
• topic: human rights; social movements; legal mobilization; gender and sexuality; derechos humanos; movimientos sociales; movilización legal; género y sexualidad

Since 2005 several organizations of the Colombian LGBT movement have been implementing a constitutional impact litigation strategy in order to obtain legal equality. The objective of this paper is to show how the case law from the Constitutional Court, in response to this activity, has on the one hand invigorated public participation in the debate about homosexual couples’ rights but, on the other hand, produced a democratic deficit. In particular, the paper discusses the strengthening of a religious countermovement willing to use human rights law to defend the status quo. The road to democratization was clouded by intransigent and fundamentalist Catholicism taking over one of the most important authorities of the State, the Office of the Inspector General of Colombia (Procuraduría General de la Nación). This situation has resulted in a powerful public authority committing its resources to the goal of avoiding recognition and protection of homosexual couples rights, despite the fact that its mandate is to defend people's fundamental rights and to punish offenses committed by public officers.