Erstellt am: 19. 2. 2013 - 16:07 Uhr

2 Mommies, 2 Daddies, 1 Law

Reality Check: Same sex couples and adoption rights; job market barriers for people with disabilities; a visit to a Romanian slaughterhouse; is former President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo guilty of crimes against humanity and what exactly is 'roid rage?

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One Step Closer to Equal Rights
"Gay adoption equality" was the buzz-phrase this morning as the FM4 news room and the Reality Check team rushed about to stay on top of court rulings made in Strasbourg and Köln this morning.
In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that one member of a civil partnership should be able to adopt the partner's stepchild or adopted child. Until now, they could only adopt a partner's biological child.
Meanwhile, at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Austria's decision to deny a lesbian woman the right to adopt her longtime partner's son was found to be discriminatory.
The ruling acknowledged that European law on adoption by same-sex couples is in flux, but found that Austria had discriminated against the same-sex couple. It ordered the government to pay more than €38.000 in damages.
The ruling was made at 11:58 this morning in Strasbourg and at 12:15 this afternoon, Reality Check had the lawyer representing the couple, on the phone....

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President Laurent Gbagbo speaking during an election rally in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on October 25th, 2010

Guilty or not Guilty?
Ivory Coast's ex-president Laurent Gbagbo is the first-ever former head of state to appear before the International Criminal Court.
He faces a week of hearings for crimes against humanity committed during a bloody election standoff in 2010.
There has been plenty of drama surrounding Gbagbo the past few years. Two years ago, Gbagbo, who had been in power for a decade, refused to accept the election victory of current president Alassane Outtara. In April 2011, his rival's forces arrested him. He stayed in the northern town of Korogho under house arrest and seven months later he was handed over to the ICC. Geraldine Mattioli Zeltner is the advocacy director of the international justice programme at Human Rights Watch. She had other insights into the comings and goings of Laurent Gbagbo...

Visiting a Romanian Slaughterhouse
Nick Thorpe has been covering stories for FM4 from diverse spots in eastern Europe for years...today he filed a report that really took a lot of professional integrity. With a view to taking a look behind the headline "Horsemeat Scandal Could Have Romanian Slaughterhouse Origin", Nick Thorpe went TO a Romanian slaughterhouse...and he's a vegetarian.

Disability and Employment
A two-day conference focusing on disability and the job market is winding down today. Barbara Murray, the International Labour Organisation's senior disability specialist, was in attendance and she gave her insights into employment and disabilities in poor countries...

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South African paralympic and Olympic sprinter, Oscar Pistorius, seen at the Pretoria magistrates court during his bail hearing Pretoria, South Africa, 19 February 2013

What is 'Roid Rage?
South African police are probing a possible 'roid rage' theory after allegedly discovering banned steroids at suspected murderer and star athlete Oscar Pistorius' home.
While the victim of last week's shooting crime, Reeva Stempkamp, is being laid to rest today, one question on many people's minds is: could anabolic steroids ('roid being the slang term for steroid) make a man so violently aggressive he could actually kill another person?
That's what I asked Jim McVeigh who is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University and he is also an expert on steroids...