What Happened?

The Ministry of Justice, in a draft amendment to the Penal Code, proposed introducing the possibility of prosecuting hate crimes, including those targeting the LGBT+ community, ex officio.

Currently, perpetrators of crimes motivated by factors such as national, ethnic, racial, or religious affiliation can face penalties. The Ministry intends to expand this list to include disability, age, gender, and sexual orientation. In the initial draft, “gender identity” was also included as a criterion, but it was ultimately decided that “gender” was a sufficiently flexible term to cover this.

The proposed penalties are as follows:

– For acts involving violence or threats: imprisonment for 3 months to 5 years.
– For incitement to hatred: imprisonment of up to 3 years.
– For public insults: a fine, community service, or imprisonment of up to 2 years.

In its justification, the Ministry of Justice stated that these changes “will ensure fuller implementation of the constitutional prohibition of discrimination and fulfill international obligations concerning protection against hate speech and hate crimes.” The amendment has already been approved by the government and will now be debated in Parliament.

What Is the Context?

This change to the Penal Code fulfills one of the points in the coalition agreement, which states:

“We are all equal, and sexual orientation and gender cannot be grounds for discrimination. Combating hate speech and hate acts will be our priority. We will amend the Penal Code to ensure that hate speech based on sexual orientation and gender is prosecuted ex officio.”

The amendment was a demand of social organizations, which, even before the government was formed, urged the Civic Coalition (KO), the Third Way, and the Left to implement such changes.

“After eight years of PiS rule, we are traumatized. I can’t imagine a national debate about civil unions while TVP incites hatred against us every 40 minutes, homophobic vans roam the streets, and right-wing organizations have millions to attack us,”  explained Bart Staszewski of the Basta Foundation to OKO.press.

The level of hate based on sexual orientation or gender identity during PiS rule was analyzed by organizations like Amnesty International. In its report, *“We Were Treated Like Criminals,”* Amnesty conducted 54 interviews with LGBT+ individuals and allies, including participants of the “Rainbow Night” protest (August 7, 2020) and the Equality March in Białystok (July 2019).

“They threw urine at us; everywhere I looked, there was physical violence, insults, someone threw a firecracker under the wheelchair of a person with a disability (…) We felt completely overwhelmed. In the end, we somehow managed to escape. My friends who were there with me were utterly traumatized afterward. It was the first time I felt certain that someone might beat or even kill me (…) Very little protected us from them,”* said Bazyli, quoted in the AI report, describing the Białystok march.

The report highlighted not only hate speech and physical attacks but also state violence, such as bans on organizing assemblies.