Joint Amicus K.B. v. Poland and 3 Other Applications

Written comments on behalf of Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network, Women Enabled International, Women’s Link Worldwide, and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).

19 November 2021

One year after the ruling of Poland’s discredited Constitutional Tribunal banning access to abortion in almost all circumstances took effect, its devastating impact on the lives of women and all those in need of abortion care continues. The ruling has increased the extreme barriers women seeking access to abortion face and has had tragic consequences for many of them and their families.

These written comments examine how prohibitions on abortion: (i) directly affect people who can become pregnant and can cause them grave harm (Section II); (ii) may lead to prohibited ill-treatment in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”) (Section III); and (iii) may violate the right to respect for private life guaranteed by Article 8 of the Convention (Section IV). 

These comments address the ways in which prohibitions on abortion can affect all persons who can become pregnant, including all women, girls, non-binary persons and transgender men, regardless of their age. Throughout, these written comments use the term ‘women and girls of reproductive age’ in a non-exclusionary manner to denote all of these persons and discuss the impacts on them.