Poland Supreme Administrative Court declines to rule on birth certificate transcription for child of two mothers

The Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) in Warsaw has declined to rule on a legal question regarding the transcription of a foreign birth certificate for an 8-year-old girl, Sofia, who was born in Spain to two mothers.

Sofia, the daughter of a Polish woman and an Irish woman, holds a Spanish birth certificate and a temporary passport. Since 2019, her mothers have sought to have the Spanish document transcribed into the Polish civil registry, a request that was previously denied by Polish authorities. The case was brought forward by the Commissioner for Human Rights after a lower court in Krakow requested a legal clarification.

The NSA, in a decision involving a seven-judge panel, left the matter unrecognized, stating that the legal question posed by the lower court was formulated incorrectly. Legal representatives for the mothers argued that the court could have issued a substantive ruling but failed to do so. The case highlights ongoing legal tensions regarding the recognition of same-sex parenting and the rights of children to have their legal identity fully documented in Poland.