Applicants are 11 Italian citizens and one Canadian national who have been in stable same-sex relationships for many years. The applicants married in countries that legally acknowledge same-sex marriages. Upon their return to Italy, they applied for the registration of these marriages to Italian authorities who refused their requests claiming that registrations would contravene public order. All applicants argued that the decisions of the Italian authorities constitute discrimination based on sexual orientation. According to the applicants, the absence of regulation of same-sex marriages or registered partnerships in Italian law violates their right to family life.
In its amicus curiae brief, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights noted that Poland has no legal regulation of registered civil partnerships and does not acknowledge civil partnerships contracted abroad. In Polish law, a marriage between persons of opposite sexes is the only valid form of marital union. The Foundation presented another legislative proposals to regulate registered civil partnerships and parliamentary debate on the issue.
Considering the above, the Foundation emphasised how the absence of legal regulation of civil partnerships affects the situation of same-sex couples. As an example, the HFHR presented the case of two women who had been engaged in a stable relationship for a number of years and entered into a civil partnership before a foreign registry office. In the years 2009-2012 the women brought a number of cases before the Polish courts claiming their right to be exempted from inheritance and donation tax, to file a joint tax return (being taxed as spouses), and receive care allowance for looking after an ill partner. Cases like this show that in Poland sexual minorities are being discriminated against in their access to social entitlements and tax preferences.
The Foundation further noted that the lack of relevant legal regulations prevents a homosexual partner from receiving a permit to purchase real property in Poland. In January 2014, the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw denied the complaint of a Chilean partner of a Polish man brought against the decision of the Minister of the Interior who refused to grant the foreigner a permit to buy a property.
