The new report is available on the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights website (www.hfhrpol.waw.pl) concerning the state of human rights observance in Poland in 2005. The report was prepared for the European Commission by the President of Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Marek Antoni Nowicki – the European Union’s expert on Fundamental Rights Issues. (07-JULY-06)

Written by Marta Lempicka/HRH Warsaw

The report analyses the situation surrounding human rights from the point of view of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and focuses on the practice and possible amendments introduced by the state. The report indicates violations to among others the right to assembly, the right to private life, violation of employee´s rights, overcrowding of prisons and excessive duration of court proceedings.

After passing the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the European Commission set up the Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights. The task, laid before these experts, is to monitor the observance of fundamental rights in the Member States and the European Union on the basis of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The result of their work consists of annual reports describing the state of human rights observance both in particular Member States and in the European Union as a whole. Poland has participated in the Network since 2003 and Marek Antoni Nowicki has been its expert since the very beginning.