These are the new provisions on compensation for religious divorces in Colombia

After considering a complaint against two articles of the General Code of Procedure, the Constitutional Court made an amendment to the provisions of nullity, divorce or cessation of civil effects in religious marriages.

According to the High Court, paragraphs 5 and 6 of article 389 of the Code stipulated that the perpetrator of a divorce or separation by judicial decision must compensate his partner, if he so requested.

The regulation also determined that copies could be compiled for investigation of whether the person guilty of the divorce had committed domestic violence.

However, according to the complaint before the Court, these determinations applied only to civil marriages, and not to religious marriages, which, according to the complaint, generated differential treatment with innocent spouses of a religious union.

In this regard, after considering the charges presented in the complaint, the high court ruled in judgment C-111-22 that the accused rules were disproportionate because they not only limited the reparations of innocent spouses in the proceedings of divorce of religious marriage, but also generated differentiation discriminatory between innocent women spouses in nullity proceedings, and innocent women spouses in divorce proceedings of religious marriage.

The High Court also added that, “the provision established a different treatment between equals because both groups correspond to women who formed a family through marriage; suffered scenarios of violence in their families; and, as a result of that situation, they went to justice to end their bond. However, the rule provided that persons who go to the process of marriage annulment may have access to the payment of damages in that process; while those who go to the proceedings of divorce or cessation of civil effects of religious marriage do not”.

As a result, the Constitutional Court determined that, from now on, compensation to the couple and the compulsion of copies will not only cover civil marriages, but also Catholic and other religious marriages.

On February 14, as part of the celebration of Valentine's Day, the National Superintendency of Notaries and Registry revealed that, during 2021, cases of divorce increased in Colombia.

As reported by the organization to La FM Radio, last year, 16,657 divorces were registered in the country, while, in 2020 and 2019, the figure was 10,305 and 15,797, respectively.

Regarding the figures, different specialists and citizens consulted by the Bogota radio station confirmed that the pandemic changed love and relationships in two ways: deciding whether or not to continue with their relationships, or to make the decision to spend more time together.

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