Commissioner for Human Rights

Newsletter 1-7 November 2017

MAIN MATTERS

Registation for the Polish Congress on Civil Rights, to be held on 8-9 December 2017 in Warsaw, is open.

The event will be an opportunity to discuss, e.g., the problems reported by citizens to the Commissioner for Human Rights over the last thirty years [registration to individual discussion panels].

Prof. Adam Strzembosz received the Paweł Włodkowic award granted by the CHR. The award committee was unanimous in granting the prize [more].

The Commissioner presented his position on the draft act on openness in public life

The general requirement to disclose one’s property status, which is planned to be introduced by the act on openness in public life, may apply to 108 categories of public sector employees: not only members of the country’s highest authorities, but also court employees, soldiers, policemen, bailiffs and even city guard members. The act may cover as many as 1.5 million citizens, warned the CHR. He also pointed out that with such a broad scope of the act’s application, there is a risk it may be applied selectively [more].

THE COMMISSIONER ON CITIZENS’ ISSUES

Children live with their mother again. The CHR’s successful intervention in the case of a woman starting work abroad [more].

How much will we have to pay for apartment heating? The CHR wrote to the Minister of Energy with regard to the formula used for calculating heat costs [more].

The CHR on the amendment to the regulations on double taxation. It may entail problems e.g. for Poles working in the UK [more].

LEGISLATION

The CHR wrote to President Andrzej Duda with regard to the bills on the Supreme Court and on  the National Council of the Judiciary [more].

Doubts concerning the practice of issuing orders for payment in electronic proceedings by writ of payment [more].

THE CHRONICLE

Adam Bodnar handed over the CHR’s badges of honour for merits in the protection of human rights to attorneys in law: Anna Bogucka-Skowrońska and Jacek Taylor who defended political opposition members suffering repressions under the former political system [more].

- The Warsaw Bar Association is concerned with the attempts to limit the Commissioner for Human Rights’ possibilities to exercise his constitutional powers, wrote Mikołaj Pietrzak, Head of the Warsaw Bar Association. His letter was a reaction to the activities undertaken by Chairman of the Property Restitution Commission, Patryk Jaki, after the CHR’s letter concerning the standards of hearings before the Commission [more].

The CHR attended the conference of Ilga Europe [more].

3 November was the European Equal Pay Day. This symbolic date marks the day when men have already earned what women will have earned by the end of the year, i.e. by 31 December [more].

Before 1 November, the All Saints’ Day, the CHR’s representatives visited the graves of late Commissioners for Human Rights: Tadeusz Zieliński and Janusz Kochanowski.