Right to Marry
The right to marry and the right to found a family shall be guaranteed in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of these rights.
This right is protected by national laws rooted in the principles of proportionality and non-discrimination, in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Commission’s reports on Ukraine’s progress highlight the importance of reforming family laws to guarantee equal rights for all citizens, including vulnerable groups and people in de facto family relationships.
Text as of March 2026
Drawing from research and human rights practices, we can identify the following issues related to exercising this right in Ukraine:
- The absence of legal recognition for civil partnerships: failure to implement EU recommendations and ECtHR judgments, and the lack of legislation on registered civil partnerships, create a legal gap regarding the status of same-sex and non-married couples, restricting their personal and property rights.
- Discriminatory regulation against same-sex couples: Ukrainian legislation does not acknowledge same-sex marriages and partnerships concluded abroad, resulting in a breach of the right to privacy and family life and conflicts with ECHR standards and ECtHR case law.
- Challenges in recognizing and legalizing marriages registered abroad include the inability to apostille documents issued in Russia and Belarus, restore or obtain copies of these documents due to martial law, and the absence of alternative legalization procedures. These issues create additional barriers to exercising the right to marry, to have marriages recognized, or to dissolve the marriage.
- The migration legislation’s inconsistency with EU standards in the context of family reunion: migration legislation does not allow for the recognition of same-sex marriages or partnerships, thereby obstructing the right to family reunification. Foreigners and stateless persons lacking legal migration status are unable to marry under any circumstances, which constitutes an excessive and unjustified restriction on the right to marry.
- Administrative barriers to exercising the right to marry: the requirement of military registration data in marriage applications can deter individuals and raise questions about whether this restriction is proportionate, particularly during peacetime.
- Limited access to marriage dissolution processes: applicable laws and administrative case law impose several restrictions. These include a prohibition on filing a claim during pregnancy and within one year after childbirth, a requirement for the physical presence of the parties at court or at the Vital Records Office, and complex procedures for marriage dissolution due to limited access to Ukrainian consular institutions. Together, these factors restrict the principle of voluntary marriage, curtail personal autonomy, and render the right to divorce significantly harder for people abroad, in war zones, or those undergoing military service.
What Ukraine needs to do during its accession to the EU to improve the situation
1. Introducing the Institute of Registered Civil Partnerships:
- Develop and finalize the civil partnership regulatory framework to address legal gaps and clearly define personal non-property and property rights and obligations of the partners. To finalize and adopt draft laws No. 9103, “On the Institute of Registered Partnerships,” which includes amendments to family legislation, and No. 12252 concerning amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine on aligning them with the requirements of Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Council Regulation (EU) 2016/1104 on introducing enhanced cooperation in the area of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of the property consequences of registered partnerships. Accordingly, Ukraine is obliged to implement the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Maymulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine (2023).
- Remove discriminatory provisions in the legislation that restrict same-sex couples’ rights compared to unmarried opposite-sex couples, especially regarding inheritance, burial, joint property ownership, access to health information, participation in medical decisions, and other situations where family relationships entitle individuals to information or the exercise of rights.
2. Protecting the rights of unregistered partnerships:
- Ensure the proper protection of both property and non-property rights of individuals living together without marriage registration. This includes rights related to joint property, inheritance, and safeguarding property interests in cases such as ending joint residence or burial.
- Enhance protections for the rights of children born out of wedlock, especially by preventing discrimination based on the child’s origin.
3. Recognizing legal facts related to marriage and its termination:
- Introduce simplified and accessible administrative procedures for recognizing marriages and divorces that occurred in temporarily occupied territories or outside Ukraine, to ensure legal certainty and individuals’ access to their rights.
- Improve procedures for recognizing and dissolving marriages conducted abroad, especially when document legalization is limited, by utilizing consular or diplomatic mechanisms.
4. Eliminate administrative barriers for marriage registration and simplify access to marriage dissolution procedures.
- Remove the requirement of presenting military registration documents to conclude or dissolve a marriage.
- Allow divorce upon request by one spouse when there are no minor children involved.
- Abolish the restriction on filing for divorce during the wife’s pregnancy and within one year after the child’s birth, as outlined in Article 110(2) of the Family Code.
- Provide simplified procedures for registering and dissolving a marriage in the area of hostilities or when one spouse is serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
- Clearly regulate and simplify the process of recognizing marriages and divorces conducted abroad, outside of Ukraine’s diplomatic or consular offices.
5. Improving immigration legislation:
- Ensure that immigration regulations align with European Union standards, especially regarding family reunification, by recognizing family ties from marriages or partnerships registered abroad, regardless of the partners’ gender.
- Allow marriage with a foreigner or stateless person regardless of the legal basis for their stay in Ukraine, while potentially implementing safeguards to prevent fictitious marriages.
6. Reviewing the draft Civil Code (draft law No. 14394):
- The draft Civil Code needs substantial revision before its adoption in the first reading, especially regarding the state’s obligations related to the right to marry and found a family. Key issues include regulations on marriage registration and dissolution, the creation and termination of registered partnerships, and safeguarding the rights of transgender individuals.
- Additionally, it is recommended to review the draft Civil Code provisions that permit lowering the age of marriage to 14 years.
For a more detailed overview of the EU and Ukraine’s acquis and case law related to this right, and the rationale for our recommendations, please see the research section of this page. Specifically, see the document available only in Ukrainian: The right to marry and the right to found a family: alignment of national enforcement mechanisms with EU standards. If you have any feedback or comments about this material, please send them to: hrmap@ccl.org.ua.
Published materials may be used provided that a mandatory link to the original source is included. © 2026 Center For Civil Liberties
