Strasbourg overturns Warsaw's parade ban

On 3 May 2007, Poland's queer community received satisfaction from Strasbourg. The European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously that by banning the 2005 Warsaw Equality Parade, Poland had violated the Convention on Human Rights three times over.

The Foundation for Equality had wanted to march through the capital in June 2005 to draw attention to discrimination against sexual and other minorities, women and people with disabilities. While the application was still pending, Mayor Lech Kaczyński gave a newspaper interview. He would ban the demonstration regardless of what was in the application. Promoting homosexuality was not an exercise of freedom of assembly.

The ban came, justified by a missing traffic plan that nobody had asked for. Several of the organisers' rallies were also banned, while the city approved counter-demonstrations on the same day, for example against adoption by homosexual couples. The activists marched anyway. Around three thousand people walked through Warsaw under police protection.

Higher authorities later overturned the bans, but only after the event. That was exactly what Strasbourg criticised: those who only win their case after the fact have no effective legal protection. The court found violations of freedom of assembly, the right to an effective remedy and the prohibition of discrimination. The mayor's statements could have influenced his administration's decisions, the judges stated.

Among the applicants was a young activist named Robert Biedroń. He later became the first openly gay member of the Polish parliament, mayor of Słupsk and a member of the European Parliament. By the time of the ruling, Kaczyński was already president.

According to the Council of Europe, the ruling triggered changes in Polish law on assembly. When Hungary banned Budapest Pride in 2025, the question from back then suddenly seemed surprisingly topical again.