Poland’s laws on same-sex couples violate human rights code, court rules

Warsaw should recognize and protect couples that don’t consist of a man and a woman, ECHR says.

EU-member Poland has long been accused by rights groups of breaching the bloc’s LGBTQ+ obligations and women’s rights | Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images

BY PIERRE EMMANUEL NGENDAKUMANA
DECEMBER 12, 2023 

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that the lack of any form of legal recognition and protection for same-sex couples in Poland breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

The court’s decision refers to five same-sex Polish couples whose application for marriage was rejected by the authorities as marriage can only be between a man and a woman, according to the Polish law.

In a press release Tuesday, the Strasbourg-based court said it considered that Poland — which was governed for most of the last decade by the populist-nationalist Law and Justice party — had failed to comply with its duty to ensure that the applicants had a specific legal framework providing for the recognition and protection of their same-sex unions.

That failure had resulted in the applicants’ inability to regulate fundamental aspects of their lives and amounted to a breach of their right to respect for their private and family life, the court added.

EU-member Poland has long been accused by rights groups of breaching the bloc’s LGBTQ+ obligations and women’s rights.

“Women’s sexual and reproductive rights and activists continued to be under attack, with a 2023 criminal conviction of an abortion rights activist for helping a woman access abortion pills. Officials use anti-LGBT rhetoric and authorities have established so-called ‘LGBT Ideology Free’ zones,” said Human Rights Watch in a statement.

In September, incoming Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised that he would introduce a number of measures to improve the lives of the country’s LGBTQ+ community.