Prof. Irena Lipowicz
Data:
Commissioner for Human Rights VI term
In 1976, Irena Lipowicz graduated with honours from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia, and started to work there. In 1981, she acquired the title of the Doctor of Law, and in 1992 the title of Doctor Habilitatus. Since 1980, Irena Lipowicz has been a member of "Solidarność" Trade Union and she was a founding member of its Upper Silesian division. Between 1991 – 2002, a Sejm deputy; she was a member of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly which drafted the Constitution of 1997.
Since 1997, she has chaired the Local Self - Government Committee of the Sejm; she was a deputy chairman of the Freedom Union Parliamentary Club as well as of the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); she was also a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Since 1998, a professor of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw; currently the head of its Administration Law and Local Self-Government Department.
Between 2000 and 2004, she held the office of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland to Austria. Between 2004 – 2006, she served as the Ambassador – Representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish – German relations. Elected to the College of the Supreme Audit Office for the years 2005 - 2010. Between 2006 and 2010, a teacher of Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities. Between 2008 and 2010, a member of the Committee on Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Between 2008 and 2010, she held the office of managing director of the Foundation for Polish - German Cooperation.
Decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Granted the Edward J. Wende award as well as the award of Grzegorz Palka for the services rendered to local self-government.
In 2009, awarded the degree of Doctor honoris causa by the Osnabrück University. She was also awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for the Services to the Republic of Austria, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as decorations of the provinces of Styria and of Upper Austria.
On 10 June 2010, Professor Irena Lipowicz was appointed by the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland as the Commissioner for Human Rights.
