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Human rights protection in Poland

Source: licencja: CC 0.

Link to the lesson

Before you start you should know
  • You are able to present the generations of human rights and provide examples of rights and freedoms that belong to each of them.

  • You are able to indicate examples of limitations of human rights and freedoms.

  • You are able to define the concept of citizenship.

  • You are able to name the international organizations to which Poland belongs, and indicate the human rights documents adopted within these organizations.

  • You are able to describe the structure of judicial system and government administration in Poland.

  • You are able to analyze the basic competences of the Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights and the Ombudsman for Children in Poland.

You will learn
  • You will be able to present the constitutional and statutorystatutorystatutory guarantees regarding human rights in Poland.

  • You will be able to analyze Poland's international commitments in the field of human rights.

  • You will be able to identify entities guarding the observance of human rights in Poland.

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nagranie abstraktu

The catalogue of rights and freedoms was confirmed primarily in Chapter II of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997. It includes personal and political rights and freedoms, economic, social and cultural rights of Polish citizens, as well as the guarantees for foreigners staying in our country. The vast majority of rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution are subject to various limitations.

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Fotografia przedstawia okładkę konstytucji RP. Na fotografii zamieszczono następujące informacje: 1. General principles: respect and protection of human dignity, freedom of the person, equality before the law, non-discrimination, equality of rights of men and women, legal protection of minority rights. 2. Personal freedoms and rights: right to life, prohibition of subjecting to scientific experimentation, including medical experimentation, without voluntary consent, freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, personal inviolability and security, presumption of innocence and right to defence, prohibition of retroactive legislation, right to fair trial, right to protection of privacy, family life and reputation, right of parents to bring up their children according to their beliefs, freedom and privacy of communication, inviolability of the home, protection of personal data, freedom of movement and choice of place of residence and sojourn, freedom to leave the territory of Poland, prohibition to expel a Polish citizen from the country, right to return to the country, freedom of conscience and religion, freedom to express opinions and disseminate information. 3. Political freedoms and rights: freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, right of access to the public service, right to obtain information on the activities of organs of public authority, right to participate in elections and referenda, right to submit petitions, proposals and complaints. 4. Economic, social and cultural freedoms and rights: right to ownership and succession, right to choose and pursue one’s occupation and to choose the place of work, obligation of the state to pursue policies aiming at full, productive employment, right to safe and hygienic conditions of work, right to days free from work and holidays, right to social security, right to health protection, right to education, freedom of artistic creation and scientific research, freedom to teach, freedom to enjoy the products of culture, right to ecological security, obligation of the state to pursue policies conducive to satisfying the housing needs of citizens, protection of consumers, customers, hirers.
Rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland
Source: licencja: CC 0.

Chapter II of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland also guarantees means for the defence of freedoms and rights:

  • right to compensation for any harmharmharm done by any action of an organ of public authority contrary to law,

  • right to appeal against judgments and decisions made at first stage,

  • right to appeal to the Constitutional Tribunal for its judgment on the conformity to the Constitution of a statute or another normative act upon which basis a court or organ of public administration has made a final decision on freedoms or rights specified in the Constitution,

  • right to apply to the Commissioner for Citizens' Rights for assistance in protection of freedoms or rights infringedinfringedinfringed by organs of public authority,

  • right to a fair and public hearing of one’s case, without undue delay, before a competent, impartial and independent court.

The constitutional provisions guarantee that an individual has the right to compensation if the institutions or organizational structures of the legislative, executive or judicial authorities (i.e. public authorities) act in violation of the law. This provision also includes omissionomissionomission, that is, failure to act. The opportunity to appeal against judgments and decisions issued in the first instance is one of the elements of a fair trial and in practice means the necessity to provide two‑instance proceedings.

An appeal to the Constitutional Tribunal is an instrument of protection of constitutional rights and freedoms of an individual:

  • the complaint may be brought by anyone whose constitutional rights and freedoms have been infringed,

  • the subject of the complaint must be a statute or other normative act, which was the basis for a decision for the court or administrative authority,

  • the provisions of the act must violate rights, freedoms or obligations specified in the Constitution,

  • the complaint must be made by a lawyer or legal advisor,

  • before submitting the complaint, the applicant must use all judicial and administrative means of appeal or remedies available to him,

  • the complaint must be submitted within three months from the date of delivery of a final judgment or other final decision to the complainant.

The Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland is the only official source of information on the universally applicable law in Poland. The publisher of the periodical is the Prime Minister. The first issue appeared on February 1, 1918. At present, the Journal of Laws is published only in the electronic version. Constitutional provisions are supplementedsupplementedsupplemented by statutes. In many places the Constitution refers to the need to adopt a law that will contain more detailed regulations. The statutes contain not only guarantees of rights and freedoms, but also related limitations.

Poland is a member of numerous international organizations of a global and regional nature. It has also ratified many international agreements on human rights. The most important of them were adopted within the framework of the United Nations, the International Labor Organization and the Council of Europe.

However, some of the important international human rights obligations have not been accepted by Poland:

  • International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families of December 18, 1990,

  • International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance of December 20, 2006,

  • Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine of April 4, 1997 (signed by Poland on May 7, 1999, but not yet ratified).

Moreover, Poland has not signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Complaint Procedure of December 19, 2011 and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of December 13, 2006. This means that it is not possible to submit a notification of violation by the Polish state of the rights and freedoms guaranteed in these conventions to relevant committees of the Rights of the Child or the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is also worth mentioning that Poland has not adopted the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Since 1989, Poland is a democratic state, guaranteeing human rights and freedoms. These rights are guarded by both the legislative and executive organs, administrative bodies, judicial authorities and tribunals, as well as specialized bodies such as the Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights, the Ombudsman for Children, the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, the Supreme Chamber of Control. However, despite numerous institutions established to protect human rights in Poland, as in any democratic state, the rights are violated. The scale of violations is evidenced byevidenced byevidenced by the number of complaints submitted to the Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights or the Ombudsman for Children. The proof of the existence of many human rights violations in our country is not only the number of complaints against Poland to the European Court of Human Rights, but also the number of cases that Poland loses. By 2013, the Court issued 1042 rulings in cases brought against Poland, of which in 885 Poland violated at least one of the rights or freedoms guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights. These data show that there is still a long way to go for Poland to fully meet the standards of human rights protection.

Exercise 1

Read the second chapter of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and write down the rights and freedoms that may be limited for the protection of the security of the state or public order, or to protect the natural environment, health or public morals, or the freedoms and rights of other persons.

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Wykonaj ćwiczenie zgodnie z poleceniem.
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Exercise 2
Ćwiczenie alternatywne: Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Explain the meaning of following words: statutory, sojourn, to expel, to disseminate, hirer, harm, omission, infringed. If it's too difficult, use lesson's glossary.

Keywords

chapter II of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, means for the defence of freedoms and rights, Constitutional Tribunal, Commissioner for Citizens' Rights, Ombudsman for Children, Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, Supreme Chamber of Control

Glossary

statutory
statutory
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Nagranie słówka: statutory

ustawowy

sojourn
sojourn
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Nagranie słówka: sojourn

pobyt

to expel
to expel
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Nagranie słówka: to expel

wydalić, wygnać

to disseminate
to disseminate
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Nagranie słówka: to disseminate

rozpowszechniać

succession
succession
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Nagranie słówka: succession

dziedziczenie

conducive
conducive
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Nagranie słówka: conducive

sprzyjające

hirer
hirer
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Nagranie słówka: hirer

najemca

harm
harm
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Nagranie słówka: harm

krzywda, szkoda

omission
omission
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Nagranie słówka: omission

zaniechanie

infringed
infringed
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Nagranie słówka: infringed

naruszony

supplemented
supplemented
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Nagranie słówka: supplemented

uzupełniony

evidenced by
evidenced by
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Nagranie słówka: evidenced by

potwierdzony