On 2nd April the Republic of Poland’s present Constitution turned 22
We are pleased to inform that after reminding this fact to people on social media, the daily updated report on the state of observance of constitutional rights and freedoms was accessed by over one thousand people in three days.
RECRUITMENT FOR STUDENT SUMMER TRAINEESHIP at the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights starts soon (more on the traineeship and recruitment)
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
- We can’t stand it anymore. Adults feel sick, not to mention kids. Your eyes get sore. Our clothes, bedsheets, everything just smells. This comment of a resident of a village with a mink breeding farm was quoted by the CHR in his letter of intervention to the Prime Minister concerning the lack of effective fight against odours. (more)
- A neighbour behind your fence burns smoke-generating fuel in his heating boiler. A factory located nearby is more arduous than usually. Workers from a mink farm nearby throw out waste to a field close to yours. You notify the authorities but nothing changes? This is because the Environmental Protection Inspectorate has neither enough staff nor equipment to react to such signals immediately. Although the regulations on the Inspection were changed last year so as to make its work more effective, its budget this year is smaller by 250 million PLN. The amount was to be used for salaries, certified environmental monitoring equipment and cars. (more)
- Citizens are helpless when the local government does not adopt an air quality protection plan. The CHR calls for changes in the regulations. (more)
RETIREMENT PENSIONS
Te CHR has inquired the Minister of the Family whether regulations will be changed so as to enact the CT’s judgment concerning retirement pensions of women born in 1953. The Tribunal drew attention to the necessity to adopt provisions to guarantee equal rules for payment of benefits to entitled persons. (more)
LIFE AND HEALTH
- A series of tragic events in health emergency wards in the Silesian region. The CHR sent letters to hospitals and to prosecutors asking for explanation of the cases and of the proceedings taken as a result of them. (more)
- We should ensure that women in rural areas have real access to perinatal care standards (more)
- There is no updating information on the works on the National Plan on Rare Diseases (more)
- MP’s bill amending the act concerning the in vitro procedure: the proposed limitation of the use of the procedure to married couples has raised the CHR's doubts. (more)
- A mentally ill man was arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward in a prison for the time of waiting for his placement in a mental hospital. He was not covered by any therapy for almost three months (more).
SYSTEM OF JUSTICE
- Judges may express their opinions on matters of importance for the judiciary, believes the CHR. In the Commissioner’s opinion, the actions of the judges’ disciplinary inspector may lead to a constitutionally unjustified restriction of their freedom of speech. (more)
- Seven judges of the Supreme Court are to answer a legal question regarding the correctness of the appointment of new judges of the Supreme Court by the President of the Republic of Poland. Therefore, the Commissioner has requested postponement of the examination, that was to be held on 3 April 2019, of his extraordinary complaints regarding the annulment of the decision on early release of two convicts. (more) The Supreme Court dismissed the CHR’s application for the postponement of the proceeding on the case, and the Commissioner’s two related extraordinary complaints that concerned criminal cases. (more)
- The Minister of Justice has declared that he will take "all possible efforts" to ensure funds in the draft budget for 2020 for increasing the salaries of employees of courts and prosecutor offices. (more)
CHILDREN AND THE FAMILY
- A mother of an autistic child who is in a social care home is not able to get information about his health on the phone because of the GDPR. (more)
- The time allocated to breastfeeding might be classified as time spent on taking care of the child and as a bridge between family life and professional life. Then, breastfeeding breaks from work could be used also by parents who feed their babies with powdered milk. The CHR has presented change proposals to the Minister of the Family. (more)
MEDIA
- A journalist of "Gazeta Wyborcza" named Tomasz Surdel was beaten in Venezuela. According to the CHR, the Polish consular and diplomatic authorities should react firmly, and the importance of freedom of the press should be underlined. (more)
- A former journalist of the Polish Radio was invited to the "Klub Trójki" radio programme but just before the broadcast she was informed that the radio managers disagreed to her participation in the programme. A former journalist of Radio Gdańsk spoke, in an interview, about the interference and pressure on her to avoid "inconvenient questions" in her programmes. The CHR has asked for explanations and has reminded everyone about the pluralist character of the public media. (more)
- The fact that the head of the tvp.info portal was compared to Jarzy Urban, spokesman of the Polish government under the former system, was the reason for blocking the user’s twitter comments on the portal, can be concluded from the reply sent by TVP President Jacek Kurski to the CHR. (more)
STUDENTS AND UNIVERSITIES
- Not all students and PhD students in Poland have equal access to discounts on public transport tickets. Differences in the entitlement to the discounts depending on citizenship or place of study, which is contradictory not only with the Polish law, but also with EU standards, underlined the CHR in his letter to the Minister of Science. (more)
- Lifetime employment contracts between judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court are against the Constitution, stated the CHR. He joined the related proceeding initiated by a motion of President Andrzej Duda. (more)