DIritti e doveri delle persone stabilmente COnviventi

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DiCo - an acronym for DIritti e doveri delle persone stabilmente COnviventi (Rights and Duties for Stably Cohabiting Persons) - refers to a bill presented to the Senate of Italian Parliament on February 8th 2007, concerning a number of rights for heterosexual and homosexual cohabiting couples. The proposal falls short of the civil unions introduced in several other European countries in recent years.

The main goal of the DiCo bill is to give cohabiting partners, irrespective of their sexual orientation, inheritance and alimony rights (after nine and three years of living together, respectively). It would also allow one partner to take decisions on funeral arrangements and organ donation when the other dies. According to the law proposal, partners would have to go to the registry office to declare their de facto union, but no ceremony akin to marriage would be celebrated. In fact, the partners do not even need to register the union at the same time.

The text of the bill has been mainly concerted by the legal staffs of two ministers of Prodi's cabinet, Barbara Pollastrini and Rosy Bindi. If approved, the text will undergo the examination of the Chamber of Deputies.