Commissioner for Human Rights

Notice of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights (CHR) on the opinion of CJEU Advocate General E. Tanchev regarding joined cases: C-558/18 (Miasto Łowicz) and C-563/18 (Prokuratura Okręgowa w Płocku)

The Commissioner for Human Rights issued ovservations concerning measures aimed at the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination in the years 2014-2019.

The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (NMPT) expresses its deep concern about the manner in which the police appr

• Dr. Adam Bodnar and the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights were awarded with the Rule of Law Award by the World Justice Project.
• The award was received by Dr. Adam Bodnar, the Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr. Stanisław Trociuk, his deputy, on 30 April 2019 during the World Justice Forum in Hague.
• Commissioner and his Office were honored for courageous efforts to stem the country’s backsliding on judicial independence and fundamental rights.

International and regional actors met with the office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Adam Bodnar, on Monday, 25 March in Warsaw, expressing their solidarity and support in light of the recent civil action brought against the Commissioner by a public television station.

On 11 February 2019, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights received a written notice of a lawsuit filed by Telewizja Polska S.A. against Adam Bodnar as a private individual.

The theme of the Holocaust remembrance and education activities this year is “Holocaust Remembrance: Demand and Defend Your Human Rights”.

On 17-18 September, 2018 the Commissioner for Human Rights of Poland was hosting the annual meeting of Ombudspersons of the Visegrad Countries (V4). The meeting, held in Gdańsk, was attended by:

Societies and states, granting themselves the right to sentence people to death, undermine the foundation of human rights: the inalienable dignity of the individual.

„I believe that the recently generated great energy of the citizens may also be used to control staffing decisions in the judiciary sector at every level: the appointments of judges, court presidents, heads of court departments, spokespersons, etc. What should be ensured is the transparency of procedures, assessment of qualifications of candidates, explanations of unclear decision.

The system of free legal aid, introduced in early 2016, already requires changes. It turned out that in practice, the aid was used only by a low number of people. Often, persons in need of such aid were not eligible for it as they did not meet the criteria set out in the relevant Act of Parliament.

The tone of many public statements in our country has reached the level of political and cultural war. Some words and expressions are used which violate human dignity and divide citizens into different categories.

On 28 April 1947, the large scale action of forced resettlement of Ukrainians and Lemkos, Polish citizens, from the south-eastern provinces of Poland to the north-west region of the country started. In three months, over 140,000 persons were resettled. Some of them were transported to the Central Labour Camp in Jaworzno, in which 160 persons died a result of hunger, illnesses and torture.