Page:Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie.djvu/63

 Rh Similar provisions from a number of different instruments were referred to, as was a decision of the United Nations Human Rights Committee to the effect that a New Zealand law denying marriage licences to same-sex couples does not violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Support for the argument was sought from the provision in our Constitution requiring that customary international law be recognised as part of the law in the Republic and that when interpreting the Bill of Rights a court must consider international law.

The reference to “men and women” is descriptive of an assumed reality, rather than prescriptive of a normative structure for all time. Its terms make it clear that the principal thrust of the instruments is to forbid child marriages, remove racial, religious

Rh