The court ruled in the plaintiff's favor in the case of E.B. vs. France saying the French decision to deny adoption rights to a lesbian couple on the grounds of sexual orientation violated European discrimination and family rights law.

"This groundbreaking ruling means governments can't use sexual orientation to stop someone from adopting a child," Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Program at Human Rights Watch said in a release Friday.

The case involved a 45-year-old teacher and her domestic partner who applied for adoption in 1998. French authorities refused the application in 2002 citing a lack of a "paternal referent" in E.B.'s home.

The European court ruled French law extending adoption rights to single parents meant France "could not then take discriminatory measures in applying it."

Human Rights Watch says the ruling means adoption rights should extend to homosexual couples throughout Europe.