MAIN MATTERS
We express our firm opposition to the words used by Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of National Defence, in an interview that was broadcast by one of TV channels. The words concerned the participants of the Equality March held on 11 August 2018 in the streets of Poznań. The minister’s statement might be considered an expression of hate speech on the grounds of sexual orientation, used in relation to LGBT persons, says a statement of CHR Adam Bodnar and Deputy CHR for Equal Treatment Sylwia Spurek. (more)
President Andrzej Duda has replied to the CHR’s suggestions of 2017, concerning methods of improving the work of the system of justice and reducing the inconveniences experienced by citizens. The President has advised the Commissioner to contact the Minister of Justice who is responsible for those issues. (more)
THE COMMISSIONER ON CITIZENS’ ISSUES
The CHR has inquired the Minister of National Education again about the preparations for the changes in the individual tuition system. The implemented change is adequate but its implementation methods should not violate the rights of children and their parents, emphasized the CHR. (more)
The new regulations which require schools to employ teachers only under employment contracts will make it impossible for private-sector schools to continue to employ speech therapists or psychologists who, so far, have been working under civil law contracts. The CHR has written to the Ministry of Education with regard to the issue.(more)
The introduction of the system of issuing decisions on people being “not self-dependent” is against the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the human rights-based approach to disability. The CHR has intervened before the president of the ZUS Social Security Institution with regard to the issue. (more)
Homeless persons are still refused their inclusion in electoral rolls. Despite its announcement of 2016, the Ministry of the Interior and Administration has not amended the related regulations. The CHR has intervened before the National Electoral Commission with regard to a guarantee of the possibility to exercise electoral rights by persons without a permanent place of residence. (more)
The Parliament Guard’s intervention in the Sejm building, taken in relation to protesting guardians of persons with disabilities, was caused by the need to ensure safety to persons who were hanging out of windows, replied the head of the Chancellery of the Sejm to the CHR’s inquiry concerning the intervention on 24 May 2018, highlighted by the media. (more)
According to the prosecutor’s office in Szczecin, police officers who have been informed of propagating indecent content at a scientific conference have the right to intervene, without checking the correctness of the information in the conference programme. According to the CHR, such interpretation undermines the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of universities. Adam Bodnar has addressed the Minister of the Interior and Administration with regard to the matter. (more)
Elimination of law abuse from the process of property restitution, by way of changing the administrative law, is difficult. The Ministry of Justice is working on a comprehensive parliamentary act on property restitution, replied the Ministry of the Interior and Administration to the CHR’s next intervention concerning the improvement of property restitution-related legislation. (more)
The police in Łowicz checked IDs of five persons after finding banners with the statements “the police protect the O.N.R. march against women” and “Brudziński practices political propaganda in the Sejm by referring to neo-Nazism”. The persons carried banners with the word “Constitution” and the police say they had “a reasonable suspicion” that the other banners could have been left by those persons or they could have seen who left them. (more)
Food in hospitals is low-quality but regular inspections by the State Sanitary Inspection should improve the situation, has assured the Ministry of Health in response to the CHR’s intervention concerning low quality of food in hospitals. (more)
Often, persons detained by the police get their first meal after over ten hours since their detention, and do not get any drink before either. The CHR requested that the matter be regulated in a parliamentary act, but the Minister of Justice does not see such a need. (more)
Daily personal checks of judge Krzysztof S. resulted from his request to ensure security to him in the detention facility, and the focus on his health and life. This has been the response of the Prison Service to the intervention concerning the former president of the Kraków Court of Appeal who, in the detention facility, was treated as a dangerous prisoner. (more)
By the end of the year, the prosecutor’s office is planning to issue the first indictments in the proceeding concerning 68 suspects one of whom is an opposition party MP Stanisław Gawłowski. The prosecutor’s office has replied to the CHR’s inquiry about the MP’s situation. (more)
After the CHR’s intervention, the District Court in Lublin annulled the provision of its internal rules and regulations, according to which the court building might be entered only by persons who have presented a letter summoning them to appear before the court, or indicating the date of a court hearing, or who have proven other need to enter. (more)
Does the TVP Television Station have a “black list” of journalists, politicians and experts? The Commissioner has requested the TVP president to take a position on such media news. (more)
The Commissioner has inquired the president of the Polish Press Agency about the removal from their website of a piece of information about the president of the National Bank of Poland criticizing the bill on employee retirement systems developed by the Ministry of Finance. (more)
The investigation against former priest Jacek M. continues. The prosecutor is going to present the charges but has not done it yet, according to Wrocław prosecutor office’s information to the CHR. (more)
LEGISLATION
The CHR has joined the proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Court, initiated by an application by the ePaństwo Foundation, concerning Internal Security Agency’s refusal to provide information on the number of blocked Internet addresses and content items .(more)
The Commissioner has joined the proceedings before the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, with the aim to support a journalist of the Oko-press web service, who was not allowed to enter the Sejm building during the protest of persons with disabilities. (more)