The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that Poland’s failure to recognize same-sex couples violates its obligations to human rights.

Przybyszewska and Others v. Poland involved several same-sex couples who had all attempted to obtain formal recognition of their relationships from the civil registry office and were denied by Polish authorities. The court found that Poland’s failure to provide a legal framework for the recognition and protection of the couples’ unions created significant hardship. These hardships included the inability to regulate important aspects of their lives, such as property, taxation and the rights and duties of mutual assistance. The Court concluded that the denial of legal recognition for same-sex couples amounted to a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for the right to privacy. According to the court, Article 8 does not require Poland to allow same-sex couples to get married. Rather, the issue was “the absence in Polish law of any possibility of legal recognition and protection of the relationship of same-sex couples.” Poland ratified the convention in 1993.

The government of Poland argued that the lack of formal recognition under the Polish constitution was an “omission” that should be at the discretion of Polish legislators. They also argued that there had been no serious injury to the parties as a result of the lack of recognition.

The court responded to these arguments, stating:

It is important to note that the Court has consistently declined to endorse policies and decisions which embodied a predisposed bias on the part of a heterosexual majority against a homosexual minority. It has also held, under Article 14 of the Convention, that traditions, stereotypes and prevailing social attitudes in a particular country cannot, by themselves, be considered to amount to sufficient justification for a difference in treatment based on sexual orientation. The Court has also held that the allegedly negative, or even hostile, attitude on the part of the heterosexual majority cannot be set against the applicants’ interest in having their respective relationships adequately recognised and protected by law. It therefore rejects those arguments in the instant case.

In their opinion, the court noted a recent trend of anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric taking hold in some regions of Europe, including Poland. In 2019, Swidnik county passed a resolution declaring itself “free from LGBT ideology” and committed itself to preventing “the sexualization of Polish children” in schools through “homopropaganda.”  The resolution was supported by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, but was withdrawn by the county earlier this year. The change was apparently made after funding for any Polish counties that supported the resolution was “put on hold” by the EU, as it violated non-discrimination law.

Poland’s Minister of Equality, Katarzyna Kotula, has announced that she will make the regulation of same-sex unions a “priority.” She went on to state that equality is guaranteed under Article 32 of the Polish Constitution.