Italian babies can take mum's name: EU court
Italian babies can take mum's name: EU court
Italy must allow children to take their mother's surname and break away from the "patriarchal concept of the family", the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.
Alessandra Cusan and Luigi Fazzo won their case against the Italian state in the Strasbourg court, nearly fifteen years after beginning their legal battle to have their daughter take “Cusan” as a surname.
The refusal of the Italian courts to allow the couple to choose their daughter's surname “reflects discrimination based on the parents’ sex”, the European Court said on Tuesday.
“The tradition conferring the father’s surname to all the members of a family could not justify discrimination against women,” the court ruled.
Cusan and Fazzo first attempted to register their daughter with her mother’s name when she was born in 1999, a request which was rejected by Italian authorities.
http://www.thelocal.it/20140107/italian-babies-can-take-mums-surname-eu-court