The Commissioner for Human Rights and representatives of social organisations signed an appeal on the availability of elections
Date:
On 6 June 2023, a press conference was held at the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights during which Commissioner Marcin Wiącek and representatives of social organisations signed an appeal on the accessibility of elections. The appeal is the result of a debate held at the Office of Commissioner.
In his speech, the Commissioner spoke directly about the problems of accessibility of elections for people with disabilities. While signing the appeal, the Commissioner declared that: “This is one of if not the most important document signed by my during my term as a Commissioner. It’s a call for protection, for respect of human dignity and I wholeheartedly encourage you to sing it”.
According to the monitoring carried out in 2019, 80% of the polling stations were not adequately adapted. This applies not only to the building itself but also to their surroundings. This was followed by speeches by Monika Zima-Parjaszewska and Katarzyna Łozińska who read out the contents of the appeal, Bartosz Marganiec who spoke on behalf of deaf people and their struggles during elections and Robert Więckowski who addressed the issues faced by people with eyesight problems. The accessibility of the election campaign is also an issue.
The appeal was signed by all conference participants, including-Edward Bolak, Krzysztof Dobies, Michał Kiśluk, Krzysztof Kotyniewicz, Krzysztof Kurowski , Ewa Pawłowska and Monika Szczygielska. The appeal was addressed to the relevant institutions dealing with the accessibility of elections.
