The European Court of Human Rights has issued a judgement against Poland for failing to properly investigate and prosecute a homophobic attack against a gay couple, highlighting systemic gaps in the country’s hate crime laws.
On July 10, 2025, in the case of Bednarek and others v Poland taken by a gay couple who were victims of a homophobic assault in Warsaw, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) together with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).
ILGA-Europe and Human Rights Watch filed a joint third-party intervention in the case to inform the Court about the context for LGBTI persons in Poland and the states’ obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights concerning homophobic and transphobic hate crimes. Polish organisation Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH) and Love Does Not Exclude Association, as well as the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights also filed third-party interventions in the case.
The case concerned a violent attack on the applicants, a gay couple who had been holding hands in Warsaw’s main streets, and their friend. The perpetrators of the attack shouted anti-gay slurs and physically assaulted the applicants.
The authorities investigated the attack, and the domestic courts tried and convicted the perpetrators. However, they were neither charged nor prosecuted for a hate-motivated attack. The attackers’ demonstration of hostility towards the couple based on their perceived sexual orientation was not taken into account in the determination of the punishment, which, according to the ECtHR, rendered this fundamental aspect of the crime invisible and of no criminal significance.
As a result, the Court ruled that the State did not adequately discharge its duty to respond appropriately to violent attacks motivated by hostility towards victims’ actual or presumed sexual orientation.
The Court noted that in Polish law, the offence of committing a hate crime or discrimination does not include the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. Domestic criminal legislation also does not provide that discrimination on those grounds should be treated as a bias motive and an aggravating circumstance in the commission of an offence. This is shown in the current ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, where Poland does not fulfil any of the criteria in the “hate crime and hate speech” category.
Welcoming the judgment, Annamaria Linczowska of KPH said: “Today’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg confirms what we have long been pointing out: Poland should introduce effective protection against crimes motivated by prejudice, including homophobia. The amendment to the Penal Code in this regard was passed by the Sejm and Senate, but it did not enter into force due to the President referring it to the Constitutional Tribunal.”
Read KPH’s press release here.
Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director, added: “This judgment sends a strong signal to Poland that there is a gap in its hate crime legislation which needs to be closed without further delay. We will be monitoring the implementation of this judgment and call on Poland to amend its criminal laws swiftly.”
Kyle Knight, associate director of LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch said:: “The European Court has made it clear that the lack of explicit protections against hate crimes in Poland left the victims inadequately protected. Now Poland has a mandate to reform its laws to include provisions against bias in crimes committed against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”