LGBTI rights wane in Poland
Polish politicians should stop stigmatising LGBTI people, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights said in a memorandum published on Thursday, adding that such behaviour risked legitimising homophobic violence.
Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party made battling what it calls “LGBTI ideology” a key plank of election campaigns in 2019 and 2020 in a bid to rally core religious conservative voters.
‘The commissioner is deeply concerned about the propagation of negative and inflammatory homophobic narratives by many public officials in Poland, including people in the highest ranks of government,” the memorandum by Dunja Mijatovic said.
“Stigmatisation and hate directed at certain individuals or groups of people carry a real risk of legitimising violence, sometimes with fatal consequences.”
The memorandum outlines instances of stigmatisation of LGBTI people in Poland, including the declaration of “LGBTIfree zones” by some local authorities, and instances of inflammatory language used about the LGBTI community by politicians and senior figures in the Catholic church.
“Stigmatising rhetoric has often been accompanied by harassment and intimidation of LGBTI activists by law enforcement agencies and the public prosecution services, the memorandum said, citing”the example of an activist detained for hanging up posters of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo.
Poland and Hungary are under EU investigation for undermining the independence of courts, media and nongovernmental organisations.