Recognition of same-sex unions in Poland

Poland does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have limited legal rights with regard to the tenancy of a shared household. A few laws also guarantee certain limited rights to same-sex couples, notably the right to refuse to testify against the partner and some social benefits. However, Article 18 of the Polish Constitution, adopted in 1997, is frequently interpreted as banning same-sex marriage, but in 2022 a court ruled that it does not explicitly preclude its recognition. A bill creating civil unions was introduced to the Parliament of Poland in October 2024. Polling suggests that a majority of Polish people support the legal recognition of registered partnerships and same-sex marriage.

Poland has been the subject of several rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding violations of the rights of same-sex couples. In December 2023, the ECHR ruled in Przybyszewska and Others v Poland that the government had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to recognize same-sex unions, and imposed a positive obligation on the government to introduce a legal framework for partnership recognition. In a subsequent case concerning marriage, the ECJ ruled in Cupriak-Trojan and Trojan v Wojewoda Mazowiecki that Poland had violated the rights of same-sex couples by refusing to recognise marriages contracted abroad, expanding on an earlier ruling from June 2018 that the same-sex spouses of European Union citizens should be granted a right of residency in Poland.


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