From 19 to 26 June, protest of nurses and midwives was held outside and inside the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in Warsaw. The nurses demanded raises in salaries and reforms of the health service. The Trade Unions Forum judged that there had been a violation of the fundamental civil rights and freedoms of four women protesting inside the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. (28-JUNE-07)

Written by Agnieszka Chmielecka and Marta Lempicka/HRH Warsaw
Photos by Lukasz Kraszynski/HFHR
Source: www.onet.pl, www.gazeta.pl

Protest at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister
On 19 June, four representatives of the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives (Ogólnopolski Zwi¹zek Pielêgniarek i Po³o¿nych – OZPiP) entered the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and refused to leave the building. The other nurses set up a pitch camp outside the building and declared that they will not leave until Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski agrees to conduct negotiations. The women protesting inside the Chancellery building were deprived of the opportunity to maintain personal hygiene and contact with the outside world, and were put under constant mental pressure. Until 25 June the nurses occupying the Chancellery were not allowed to receive packages from the outside. At the request of the OZPiP, Prof. Andrzej Rzeplinski from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights attempted to enter the Chancellery in order to talk with the women and check whether civil rights were not violated, however he was not let inside. On the evening of 24 June, the nurses staying inside the Chancellery of the Prime Minister began a hunger strike. 

           
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Aid for the protesters
RzeplinskiThe nurses appointed a committee of independent observers and mediators made up of: former senator and doctor Olga Krzyzanowska, “Solidarity” legend Henryka Krzywonos-Strycharska and Prof. Andrzej Rzeplinski (right) from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. They also turned to Ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski with a request to undertake mediation.
Moreover, the Trade Unions Forum, of which the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives is a member, turned to the HFHR to perform current monitoring of the Authorities’ reaction to the protest campaign. Also through the agency of the HFHR, the Forum referred a letter to Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, informing him about the ongoing protest and asking him to consider an appropriate intervention in this case.
On Tuesday 26 June, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski gave assented to meeting with the nurses and discussing their postulates, after which the nurses agreed to leave the building. Talks between those two sides of the conflict are in process.