By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Wednesday March 3 that Poland discriminated against a homosexual man for denying him a right to succeed to an apartment in which he lived with his now deceased partner.

In accordance, the ECHR further prohibited Poland from discriminating against homosexual couples, despite a constitutional prohibition on homosexual marriage.

Piotr Kozak lived with a male partner from 1989 to 1998 in an apartment in Szczecin, Poland. The lease agreement was in the partner’s name.

When the partner died, Mr. Kozak applied to continuing living in the apartment, but his landlord refused to allow him to conclude a new lease agreement. The landlord denied the succession to the apartment despite Polish statutory law, which allows any “person who has lived in de facto cohabitation with the tenant” to succeed to the tenancy.

Mr. Kozak first brought suit in the Polish courts. However, Polish authorities courts and authorities consistently rejected the rights of homosexual couples.

Poland rejected Mr. Kozak’s claim on its understanding of Polish law on Article 18 of the Polish Constitution, which provides a definition of marriage as a “union of a man and a woman”. By analogy, the courts said that any cohabitation rights held in Poland apply only to heterosexual couples.

The European Court of Human Rights, however, rejected Poland’s arguments. The ECHR ruled instead that Poland violated Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which give European citizens the right to private and family life and prohibits discrimination, respectively.

The Court ruled that “de facto marital cohabitation” rights must be applied to persons in same-sex relationship the same way it is applied to heterosexual cohabitants. In so ruling, the ECHR stressed that the Convention was a “living instrument”.

Polish human rights groups praised the decision. Yga Kostrzewa, a spokeswoman for Lambda Warsaw, predicted that “[t]here will certainly be many more cases like this because there are a lot of laws and regulations that do not treat people equally.”

For more information, please see:

FINANCIAL TIMES – Homosexuals win legal victory against Poland – 3 March 2010

PINK PAPER – European Court of Human Rights: Polish legislation discriminates – 3 March 2010

RIA NOVOSTI – Strasbourg rules Polish gays can inherit property from partners – 3 March 2010