Emilia Barabasz
‘Because I am lesbian, my life in Poland is not among the easy ones, especially considering the lack of any legal protection of my union. My marriage, lawfully concluded in another European Union state, is not recognised in my state. I cannot legally inherit from my wife nor can she from me. The will does not settle the matter: we belong to the last tax group, so the gifts and bequests tax will not pass us by, the legitim will still have to be paid. These are but two examples of my worries. I experience other problems on a daily basis, encountering homophobia and hate speech against which I am not legally protected. Hundreds of thousands of people in Poland share these circumstances. I am an attorney and I decided to use my skills to change the LGBT+ persons’ legal status. Our rights are human rights. We are people, not some ideology. And we need our rights.’
Emilia Barabasz is an attorney, Secretary of the Human Rights Section of the District Bar Council in Warsaw and member of the Women’s Issues work group in the Supreme Bar Council.
Partner in the Barabasz Dębska Attorneys law firm in Warsaw. She works with the Polish Society of Anti-Discrimination Law as a pro bono lawyer. She has taken part in the “Attorneys on the Border” action in 2017-2019, within which attorneys have provided legal aid to refugees striving to file applications for international aid at the Polish border in Terespol – the cases were won before the Supreme Administrative Court. Apart from human rights, in her practice she focuses mostly on copyright and related rights.
She is co-author of the Legislative Commission of the Supreme Bar Council opinion on the parliamentary draft bill on the partner union and the opinion of the District Bar Council in Warsaw on the parliamentary draft bill on prohibiting the conversion practices.
She is a defender of two people detained by the Police during solidarity rallies with the arrested Margot, which took place on August 7, 2020 in Warsaw.
With other LGBT persons, she sued Kaja Godek for personal rights protection. With her wife, she is fighting for a transcript of the act of marriage concluded in Berlin.