LGBT+ Rights Under Threat in Poland

That the Parliament is deeply concerned by what it sees as the increasingly anti-LGBT+ sentiments being raised by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and the Polish Government; understands that, in June 2020, President Duda signed a "Family Charter" of election proposals that pledged to pursue measures to prevent gay couples from marrying or adopting and to ban teaching about LGBT+ issues in schools, while describing the LGBT+ movement as a "foreign ideology" that is more destructive than communism; recognises that, in an index published this year by the international advocacy group, ILGA, Poland ranked as the worst in the EU for LGBT+ rights; is worried by reports that around one-third of the country has declared itself an LGBT+-free zone, with municipalities signing a pledge adopting resolutions against what they call LGBT+ "propaganda”; recognises that there have been numerous protests by LGBT+ activists in the country in recent months that are becoming increasingly confrontational; is troubled by the arrest of 48 activists on 7 August on the grounds that they had participated in a “violent illegal gathering”; understands that this followed three people being charged for hanging rainbow flags from statues in a separate demonstration; is further deeply concerned that Poland recently announced that it was withdrawing from a European treaty aimed at preventing violence against women; calls on Members to speak out in solidarity with Poland’s LGBT+ people, who it believes are being detained, brutalised and intimated by increasingly authoritarian measures, and strongly condemns what it sees as the ever more totalitarian moves being taken in Poland.