A tide of anti-gay laws and rhetoric is sweeping across regions, putting already stigmatised communities at greater risk. In an interview with Geneva Solutions, the Human Rights Council-backed LGBT rights expert, Graeme Reid, warns that the rise of authoritarian populists and the decline of democracy are creating a perfect storm.

More: https://genevasolutions.news/human-rights/un-lgbt-rights-expert-authoritarian-populists-fuelling-tide-of-anti-gay-laws-for-votes

On 2 July 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered one decision and one judgment in two cases which, whilst resting on different facts, raised the same legal issue. The common thread between the two cases is that the children of two same-sex couples residing in the United Kingdom under a registered civil partnership were unable to obtain Polish identity documents, such as Polish passports, because their UK birth certificates were not transcribed by the Polish authorities.

In both cases, A.D.-K. and Others v. Poland and A.P. and R.P. v. Poland, the applicants – in each instance two women in a British civil partnership – tried to have their child’s British birth certificate, which listed the birth mother as “mother” and her partner as “parent,” registered in the Polish civil status registry. However, the Polish authorities refused, citing public policy reasons. The Supreme Administrative Court eventually ruled that including two women as parents on a birth certificate would violate the core principles of Polish law.

Full Article: https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/legal-vacuum-or-legal-uncertainty-in-strasbourg/

The 2027-32 strategy sets a common direction for ensuring that LGBTI people fully enjoy their human rights

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted the organisation’s first Strategy for equal rights for LGBTI people which provides a structured framework for implementing existing human-rights commitments to advance equality and prevent discrimination and violence.

More: https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/first-council-of-europe-strategy-for-equal-rights-of-lgbti-people-adopted-new-report-on-anti-lgbti-hate-speech-released

UPCOMING EVENT       The United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) requires UN member states to report approximately every four and a half years on their human rights progress and receive recommendations from other states for continued improvement. Join us on Monday, September 21, for a panel of international scholars and human rights defenders to discuss the progress and regressions that the U.S. and other countries have made on LGBTQI rights. These countries will be reviewed in November 2026 at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Register today!

RSVP Today: https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8y7_5DDiQjWt7u410PvL-g#/registration

Outright International is currently seeking a Senior Program Manager for a new, multi-year programme supporting LGBTIQ+ rights, spanning several of our core programmatic regions. The role will lead partner grantmaking, capacity strengthening, and international advocacy work in close collaboration with in-country civil society partners.

For more information, please see the posting here. (https://outrightinternational.bamboohr.com/careers/84)

Poland has started legally recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other EU countries. This follows a chain of rulings: the EU’s top court said in late 2025 that Poland must recognize such marriages, Poland’s own top administrative court agreed in March 2026, and registry offices began applying this in practice on 22 August 2026. This happened even though Poland’s president vetoed related bills in July and the country’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled against recognition days later.