FIRST SECTION
CASE OF ANDERSEN v. POLAND
(Application no. 53662/20)
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
24 April 2025
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Andersen v. Poland,
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Erik Wennerström, President,
 Raffaele Sabato,
 Artūrs Kučs, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 53662/20) against the Republic of Poland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 18 November 2020 by a Polish national, Mr Bartholomew Kyle Andersen (“the applicant”), who was born in 1988, lives in Colwyn Bay, United Kingdom, and was represented by Mr P. Knut, a lawyer practising in Warsaw;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Polish Government (“the Government”) represented by their Agent, Mr J. Sobczak, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
the parties’ observations;
the comments submitted by Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture which was granted leave to intervene by the President of the Section. Having deliberated in private on 20 March 2025,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The applicant complained under Article 8 of the Convention that his marriage with his same-sex partner, contracted abroad, had not been registered in Poland while there had been no other form of legal recognition and protection for his relationship. 2. On 7 May 2016 the applicant married his partner in Conwy, United Kingdom. 3. In February 2017 the applicant requested the Goszczyn Civil Status Office to register his marriage contracted abroad, which it refused because entering a same-sex marriage in the Polish Registry would be contrary to “basic principles of the Polish law”. Upon appeal, the Mazowiecki Governor upheld the decision as did the Warsaw Regional Administrative Court. On 25 February 2020 the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed his cassation appeal. The judgment was notified to the applicant on 21 May 2020. 4. The applicant complained under Article 8 of the Convention of a total lack of recognition of his relationship in Poland, in that it was impossible for him to enter into any type of legally recognised union with his same-sex partner. The applicant further complained that his marriage contracted abroad was not recognised by the Polish authorities in any way.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 8
Outcome: violation