Poland - March 2023

A district court in Gdańsk found Mariusz Dzierżawski, the head of a conservative foundation, guilty of defaming LGBTQIA+ people for the first time, sentencing him to one year of community service, and ordering him to pay a fine and to issue an apology. Dzierżawski’s organisation, Foundation Pro – Right to Life, has run a campaign linking the LGBTQIA+ community to sexual abuse of children, promoting this message using vans, banners, and slogans. It follows a February 2020 decision from a court in Wrocław that found the campaign to be “informative” and “educational”. Poland’s hate crime laws do not currently cover sexual orientation or gender identity, and the ruling represents an important step in condemning hate speech against the LGBTQIA+ community.

Sources: Notes from Poland (1), Notes from Poland (2), Gazeta Wyborcza

Activist Justyna Wydrzyńska in Poland was convicted for helping a pregnant woman, who had been the victim of gender-based violence, to access abortion pills. Wydrzyńska, who leads Abortion Dream Team, an abortion rights NGO, was sentenced to eight months of community service under a law that criminalises providing help to terminate a pregnancy. UN human rights experts strongly condemned the sentence for contributing to a hostile environment for those working towards safe abortion care and demanded her acquittal. “Justyna Wydrzyńska’s work must be supported, not criminalised,” the experts said.

Sources: Politico, UN OHCHR, Notes from Poland, Lewica