Staff and wire reports

BOGOTA, Colombia—Gays in Colombia may add their partners to health insurance plans, the nation’s highest court has ruled, building on an earlier decision granting inheritance rights to same-sex couples.

The Oct. 5 ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court cannot be appealed.

Conservative lawmakers earlier this year derailed efforts to allow gay couples to share health benefits.

In February, the court said gay couples need only prove they have been living together for two years in order to obtain the right to half their partner’s possessions and inheritance after death or separation.

The court has not ruled on pension rights for gay couples in the event a partner dies.

Colombia Diversa, which defends the rights of sexual minorities, says the country has 300,000 gay couples. The group has been pushing, through the courts and the country’s legislature, for increased rights for gay and lesbian couples.

Gay and lesbian couples enjoy partnership rights in a handful of South American countries, including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Three states—one in Brazil and two in Argentina—and the country of Uruguay allow civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Elsewhere in Latin America, two states in Mexico also grant civil unions to gay and lesbian couples.