The ECtHR has issued a landmark ruling condemning current Polish laws that do not provide protection to homosexual couples
El European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) This Tuesday he sentenced Poland for violating the right to respect for private life due to the lack of a framework that guarantees «recognition and protection» of same-sex couples.
Five pairs of Lodz, Krakow and Warsaw, whose weddings were rejected by local authorities arguing that Polish law only authorizes marriage between a man and a woman, took their case to the European court. These couples, whose appeals were rejected by the Polish justice system, defended that the «lack of official recognition of their relationship» harmed them in terms of tax, social or family rights, according to the European court.
By six votes to one, the judges of the ECHR have concluded that the Polish State has violated the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular the article that establishes respect for private and family life, as there is no "specific legal framework» that protects homosexual unions. He ECHR He agreed with them, since he considered that Poland is obliged to «provide a legal framework that allows people of the same sex to enjoy adequate recognition and protection of their relationships«.
Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine were convicted in 2023 on similar grounds by the court based in Strasbourg, judicial arm of the Council of Europe and not linked to the European Union (EU).
The magistrates consider that the «majority social attitudes» in a country they cannot «justify a difference in treatment based on sexual orientation» and that the recognition and protection of same-sex couples does not harm traditional families.
Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland
The decision was known a day after the parliament of Poland elected the pro-European as prime minister Donald Tusk, who will succeed the party's conservative executive Law and Justice (radical right) in power since 2015. Tusk has promised to reverse some of the social cuts promoted in recent years, although doubts persist regarding the agreements that the formations that will share the coalition can reach in this area.
The coalition agreement Tusk, leader of the center-right party Civic Platform, with the Christian Democrats and agrarians of Third Way and the social democrats of Left (Left), does not include movement rights LGTBI such as same-sex unions or adoption. The new prime minister did promise them during the campaign, and the new minister of Justice and former Ombudsman, Adam Bodnar, a renowned human rights activist, has joined the collective's demands in the past.
Organizations defending LGTBI rights have celebrated the decision and have invited the new liberal Executive, which is scheduled to take office today, to engage in dialogue to comply with the ruling of the Strasbourg Court.