The State of the World's Human Rights; Poland 2025

Parliament passed a law threatening the rights of refugees and migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border, in particular by suspending the right to asylum. Environmental activists were convicted for peaceful acts of civil disobedience. The LGBTI community faced technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Access to abortion remained severely restricted. Poland’s economy remained one of the most emission-intensive in the world, and reliance on imported oil and gas increased.

Background

Presidential elections in June were won by Karol Nawrocki, who campaigned using anti-migrant rhetoric. In July, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government conducted a restructure, abolishing the posts of Minister of Equality, Minister for Older Persons, and Minister for Civil Society.

In August, Poland notified the UN of its withdrawal from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (the Ottawa Treaty), prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and requiring their destruction. Under the terms of the Convention, the withdrawal was due to take effect six months after notification, in February 2026.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

In March, Poland introduced a 60-day suspension of people’s right to submit applications for international protection at the country’s border with Belarus, under a law adopted by parliament a month earlier. The suspension was repeatedly extended and remained in place throughout the year. The new powers effectively codified the carrying out of unlawful forced returns (“pushbacks”) at the border. As such, they were incompatible with international law and the Polish constitution.¹

Furthermore, the authorities continued to enforce an exclusionary “buffer zone” along the Polish-Belarusian border, banning unauthorized people including journalists and civil society monitors. Assisting migrants remained criminalized. In September, a group of activists known as the Five from Hajnówka were acquitted of “assisting in the illegal stay of foreigners”, a charge carrying up to five years’ imprisonment. They had been accused of enabling the illegal presence in Poland of people on the move by providing humanitarian aid to migrants who had crossed the border irregularly. The prosecutor’s office announced its intention to appeal.

In June, a list of countries to which returns were not permitted was scrapped. The list had previously included countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan.

Impunity

In January, the government adopted a resolution declaring that it would ensure “free and safe” participation in the commemorations of the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp for “the highest representatives of the State of Israel.” This occurred despite the ICC issuing arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. Ultimately, neither attended the commemoration.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Environmental activists from the Last Generation movement continued to be convicted for peaceful acts of civil disobedience occurring in 2024. Several activists were sentenced to community service, arrested or fined, including for blocking a bridge and roads and for disrupting a concert.

In July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a precedent-setting judgment in the case of Siedlecka v. Poland, finding that the frequent practice of prolonged detention within a police cordon violated the rights to liberty and security.

Discrimination

In March, parliament passed a law including disability, age, gender and sexual orientation as grounds for the criminal prosecution of hate crimes. However, the bill was not signed by the president, who referred it to the politically compromised Constitutional Tribunal. In September, the tribunal declared the bill to be unconstitutional.

Regardless, in March, the prosecutor general issued binding guidelines for the prosecution service on conducting proceedings in cases of hate crimes which included these new grounds.

In a landmark ruling issued in March, the Supreme Court decided that the process for gender recognition should be classified as non-litigious proceedings. This would eliminate the harmful requirement for applicants to sue their parents in order to amend their legal gender. Court proceedings were still necessary, however, in the continued absence of any specific law on legal gender recognition.

Poland’s LGBTI community continued to experience a range of technology-facilitated gender-based violence on X. Although a digital services coordinator was appointed in May, Poland still failed to transpose into law the EU Digital Services Act, which placed obligations on platforms to identify and mitigate systemic risks to fundamental rights.²

In November, in a landmark judgment, the Court of Justice of the EU held that Poland must recognize a same-sex marriage lawfully concluded by its nationals in another EU country.

In December, a draft law proposing the introduction of a civil partnership for same-sex couples was submitted to parliament. Entitled On the Status of the Closest Person in a Relationship and the Shared Living Arrangements, the bill was more limited in scope than previous drafts.

Sexual and reproductive rights

Access to abortion care remained severely restricted. In November, the ECtHR delivered a judgment in the case of A.R v. Poland, finding that Poland had violated the right to a private and family life in the case of a pregnant woman who had travelled abroad to have an abortion.

In February, an appeal court referred the case of human rights defender Justyna Wydrzyńska back to a lower instance court on fair trial grounds. The activist faced a retrial for helping a pregnant woman to access abortion pills.

On 8 March, the Abortion Dream Team collective opened the AboTak Centre to provide information about safe abortion and support for those having an abortion. Anti-abortion protesters regularly gathered outside and, on several occasions, poured butyric acid – a strong smelling substance that can pose a health risk – near the centre’s entrance. The protesters also used tactics that raised concerns about harassment and intimidation. These included displays of disturbing images and extremely high levels of noise, which affected AboTak Centre staff, users of the centre, passers-by and local residents.

In April, a criminal investigation was opened into the conduct of Dr Gizela Jagielska, who had provided a lawful late-term abortion. Dr Jagielska was subsequently subjected to physical and verbal attacks, in person and online.³ In December, the case was dismissed by the prosecutor’s office.

In July three doctors were found guilty of endangering the life of a woman from the town of Pszczyna. She had died in 2021 from sepsis after being denied medical care in a situation where an abortion may have saved her life. The judgment was not final and the doctors appealed the verdict.

Economic, social and cultural rights

From July, a new social security benefit for widows and widowers came into force, enabling them to collect both their own and part of their late spouse’s pensions. The government estimated that this would financially benefit some 2 million older people. However, the benefit was available only to married widowed people, discriminating against unmarried couples and LGBTI+ people in the absence of marriage equality in Poland.

Poland had still not ratified the additional protocols to the ICESCR or the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, through which individuals would be allowed to bring complaints about violation of their rights at the international level. In September, 14 organizations including Amnesty International called on the government to take this step.

Right to a healthy environment

The contribution of coal to electricity production dropped to below 50% for the first time. Nevertheless, Poland remained heavily dependent on fossil fuels, with 85% of its primary energy coming from coal, oil and gas. Dependence on imported oil and gas increased, with gas playing a growing role in the power sector. According to the thinktank Energy Forum Foundation, Poland’s economy remained one of the most carbon-intensive in the world, both in terms of GDP and energy consumption.

The Ministry of Climate and Environment approved a new version of the draft National Energy and Climate Plan in July with updated targets extending to 2040. Among other issues, the plan was criticized for its unambitious renewable energy targets, which increased too slowly to match EU-wide goals.

In July, the European Commission launched infringement proceedings after Poland failed to fully transpose the EU Renewable Energy Directive, which formed part of Poland’s legal obligations under EU energy governance.

1. “Poland: Law ‘suspending’ asylum claims is a flagrant violation of international law and poses a serious threat to the rights of refugees and migrants”, 1 May ↩︎
2. Poland: “A Thousand Cuts” – Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Against Poland’s LGBTI community on X, 1 September. ↩︎
3. “Poland: End investigation into conduct of doctor who provided a lawful late-term abortion”, 28 August. ↩︎