Civil partnerships get Parliament's approval
 AFP

GENEVA Switzerland's Parliament on Friday approved new legislation setting up a form of civil partnership that gives homosexual couples many of the same social and taxation rights as married partners. The legislation might still face a referendum if a small right-wing party, the Federal Democratic Union, succeeds in gathering 50,000 signatures to petition for a national vote.

Although narrower than France's civil solidarity pact by only applying to homosexuals and not unmarried heterosexual couples, Switzerland's "recorded partnership" provides mainly civil and administrative rights and is meant to be distinct from marriage. It explicitly rules out adoption and any form of artificial insemination or medically-assisted procreation.