EU slams Poland over gay rights

5th March 2010

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The European Court of Human Rights has struck a blow for gay rights in Poland by ruling that homosexuals can inherit from their partners.

In a unanimous verdict, the Strasbourg-based court found that the local authorities in Szczecin had contravened the European Charter of Human Rights when they tried to evict a man, whose partner had died, from a flat the two men had once shared.

Szczecin had rejected a request by Piotr Kozak that he be allowed to continue to live in the municipal flat, explaining the right under Polish law for a person to inherit from their partner failed to apply as in this case both partners were men. Under the Polish constitution, marriage is defined as a “union of a man and a woman”.

But the European court, while conceding the difficulty in balancing the traditional concept of marriage with gay rights, said that this definition was discriminatory.

The ruling was welcomed by gay rights groups, with Iga Kostrzewa from the Lambda organisation calling it “very important because it shows a certain inequality before the law”, and adding that it could encourage others to go to court.

“There will certainly be many more cases like this because there are a lot of laws and regulations that do not treat people equally,” she said.

Yet not everybody was happy with the work of Strasbourg.

Bishop Stanislaw Stefanek of Lomza criticised the ruling, arguing the court “had certain priorities, like the promotion of the sexual activity of young people or of homosexual unions”.

Going a bit further Tomasz Terlikowski, a conservative commentator and journalist lambasted the decision.

“The judges are not interested in the defence of marriage or how logical their decision is,” he wrote in his blog. “They are too busy with a revolution, with constructing a new human person and a new rainbow civilisation. A civilisation that is to be built on the corpses of the institution of family and marriage.”

Homosexuality remains a controversial subject in Poland with gay campaigners often claiming that homosexuals face discrimination, and accuse the government and the authorities of failing to stand up for their rights.