Ecuador's New Adoption Law Violates LGBTQ+ Rights

Author: Eman Butt

September 2, 2026

HRRC condemns the adoption of these reforms and urges Ecuador to uphold the right to non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. We call on authorities to modify the current legislation that violates the rights of LGBTQ+ people and to lift the constitutional ban on the adoption of children by same-sex couples. 

[Image credit: James A. Molnar/Unsplash]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights unequivocally states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Thus, under international human rights law, states have an obligation to safeguard the rights of LGBTQ+ people. However, Ecuador’s National Assembly approved the Reform Law of Various Legal Bodies for the Streamlining of Adoption by a vote of 118-0, despite this being in contravention of the international obligation of Ecuador to respect the right to equality and non-discrimination. The law came into force on August 14, 2026 and explicitly barred single LGBTQ+ people from adopting. The regulations provide that couples who wish to adopt must be hetero-sexual. 

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the law aims “to remove inefficiencies in adoption processes and reduce the amount of time children spend in institutional care.” The law is viewed as an extension of the pre-existing restriction on adoption of children by same-sex couples under Article 68 of the constitution of Ecuador. This article explicitly limits the right of adopting children to heterosexual couples. 

“Any blanket exclusion based on sexual orientation, replacing individualized assessments of prospective parents, is contrary to the new law’s own stated commitment to the best interests of the child”, stated HRW. 

Despite legalisation of same-sex marriages in Ecuador on June 12, 2019, couples

are still not allowed to adopt children because of the constitutional restriction that limits adoption of children to heterosexual couples. Consequently, despite the constitutional guarantee of non-discrimination under Article 66 of Ecuador’s constitution, LGBTQ+ individuals still face discrimination.

Moreover, the new reforms contain discriminatory provisions regarding transgender children. Article 3 of the Reform Law enlists the grounds on which parental authority may be judicially terminated. Among these grounds is “the promotion of medical, surgical, or pharmaceutical procedures intended to modify the biological sex of a child, except when such interventions are strictly necessary for the treatment of intersex conditions.” 

 This is extremely concerning as this broad provision could be interpreted to include a wide range of health care services. As a result, parents whose children require a medical treatment for exploring their gender identity may be hesitant to seek intervention for fear of termination of their parental authority. 

LGBTQ+ rights in Ecuador are largely shaped by court rulings rather than by lawmakers or government officials. Earlier this year, on February 5th, the constitutional court of Ecuador passed a ruling which recognized transgender adolescents’ right to gender identity and facilitated legal changes to their gender markers on official identity documents. 

This ruling, though controversial among religious groups, was welcomed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR emphasized that “a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are fundamental components of a person’s private life”. The Commission also highlighted that such spheres of privacy should not be subject to intrusion by anyone, including the State. The adoption of the current reform therefore highlights the continuing need to align Ecuador’s legislation with the international human rights standard.

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Glossary

• Adolescent: A young person who is developing into an adult. 

• Adoption: The act of legally taking a child to be taken off as your own. 

• Anatomy: The scientific study of the body and how its parts are arranged. 

• Contravention: The act of doing something that a law or rule does not allow, or an instance of this. 

• Gender- Expression: The outward manifestations of the cultural traits that enable a person to identify himself/herself/herself as male, female, or nonbinary, according to the patterns that, at a particular moment in history, a given society defines as gender appropriate.

• Gender-Identity: Each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth.

• Heterosexual: A heterosexual person is attracted to someone of the opposite gender, generally male and female. 

• Intersex: When an individual’s sexual anatomy does not physically conform to the culturally defined standard for the female and male body.

• Intrusion: Something that affects a situation or people’s lives in a way that they do not want.

• Judicially: A way that involves a law court. 

• Manifestations: A sign of something existing or happening.

• Non-binary: A gender identity that is not simply male or female.

• Parental Authority: Parental authority refers to parents’ rights and responsibilities toward their children.

• Pharmaceutical: Substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease and 

• for restoring, correcting, or modifying organic functions. 

• Provision: In legal terms, a provision is a specific requirement or rule within a legal document or law. 

• Sexual Orientation: Each person’s capacity for profound emotional, affection and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.

• Transgender: An umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.