Commissioner for Human Rights

CHR on the draft amendment to the Act on granting protection to foreigners on the territory of the Republic of Poland. Opinion submitted to the President of the Republic of Poland (12.03.2025, 21.03.2025)

On 15 October 2024, the government adopted a document entitled ‘Take back control. Ensure security - Poland's comprehensive and responsible migration strategy for 2025-2030'. Some of the solutions were intended as a response to the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, including the instrument of ‘temporary and territorial suspension of the right to apply for asylum’ (international protection).

The project is a continuation of the legislative action that began in 2021. These efforts are based on the assumption that denying foreigners access to international protection will help resolve the border crisis. However, completely depriving foreigners of such access is inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and international standards of human rights protection, especially as a state of emergency has not been declared and the Constitution does not allow for a quasi-state of emergency.

As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees rightly pointed out in his comments on the draft, although the situation is very difficult and complex, instrumentalisation cannot be the basis for a general suspension of the protection of human rights.

The obligation to ensure the protection of everyone's dignity and freedom from inhuman treatment cannot be made conditional. From this point of view, it does not matter whether a person has come under the jurisdiction of the Republic illegally or whether he or she is a victim of a phenomenon that can be described as the ‘instrumentalisation of migration’.

According to the opinion drawn up by the Commissioner for Human Rights Marcin Wiącek, these regulations raise fundamental objections - as being contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and international legal obligations under: Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and numerous EU regulations, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

After the adoption of the amendment by the Senate, the Commissioner forwarded his opinion on the law to the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda. In doing so, the CHR noted that the Act raised fundamental objections as to its compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, as well as international law.

https://bip.brpo.gov.pl/pl/content/rpo-cudzoziemcy-ochrona-miedzynarodowa-projekt-opinia-prezydent