Strasbourg deems Polish law discriminatory
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A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Poland must give a gay couple the same legal rights as an unwed straight couple has enraged conservatives in Poland, who claim this paves the way for introducing same-sex marriage in the strongly Catholic country.
The Strasbourg court ruled this week that the local authorities and courts in Szczecin, north-west Poland, had violated the European Convention on Human Rights when they denied plaintiff Piotr Kozak the right to take over the lease on a municipal apartment from his deceased partner.
The authorities tried to evict Kozak from the flat after a court in Szczecin ruled that common-law marriage rights, under which he claimed the property, applied solely to heterosexual couples.
Polish law does not currently recognize same-sex marriages or partnerships, but Iga Kostrzewa from the Lambada Association in Warsaw hopes the European Court's ruling may help bring about a change in the law to give equal rights to all couples, regardless of their sexuality.
“The ruling is very important for lesbian and gay couples in Poland because it proves that the law for same sex relationships is not [the same] as for other types of relationships. I think politicians should think about that and change the law," she said.
Conservatives argue, however, that this is an attempt to bring gay marriage through the back door in Poland. They say the ruling was not a legal judgment, but a political one.
“What is absolutely clear is that the European Court of Human Rights does not protect human rights in this case,” right-wing journalist Tomasz Terlikowski told Euranet. “It has not tried to build a more humane society, but has engaged in an ideological war with Europe’s families by ruling that same sex couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples,” he said.
Although the ruling only relates to Kozak’s particular case, head of the Strategic Litigation Program at the Helsinki Foundation in Poland Maciej Bernatt thinks that it sends out a signal that same-sex couples have rights that need protecting.
“The direct consequence from the ruling will not be that huge, as it only concerns the right to tenancy. But in a wider sense it is significant as it shows that [..] in certain situations the state has discriminated against homosexual couples,” he said.
An opinion poll by GfK Polonia, taken in August last year found that 75 percent of Poles opposed the legalisation of same-sex relationships.
