Atala Riffo and Daughters v. Chile[1] (Spanish: Atala Riffo y Niñas vs. Chile) was a landmark[2] Inter-American Court of Human Rights case on LGBT rights, which reviewed a Chilean court ruling that in 2005 awarded child custody to a father due to the mother's homosexual orientation.
[3] Atala was separated from her husband in 2001,[4] and originally reached a settlement with her ex-husband that she would retain custody of the children.
When Atala came out as a lesbian in 2002, however, the ex-husband sued for custody, where the case was eventually heard by the Supreme Court of Chile.
[5] In 2010, the Court ruled that sexual orientation was a suspect class, and that in Atala had been discriminated against in the custody case in ways incompatible with the American Convention.
[11][12] In December 2012, Mexico's highest judicial body, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, unanimously struck down an Oaxaca law which prohibited same-sex marriage, with a decision based in part in the Atala ruling's prohibition of "any rule, act, or discriminatory practice based on sexual orientation".