Touted by Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, as “the single most exhaustive report by human rights done by anyone anywhere in the world,” it is conspicuous that the US is not evaluated. When commenting on the subject, Posner declared that the US is focusing on its presentation to the Universal Period Review at the UN Human Rights Council, which will include a comprehensive evaluation of US issues relating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The report for Poland is mostly favorable, although some areas for improvement are stressed: an inefficient judicial system, restrictions on free speech, government corruption, discrimination, and lengthy pretrial detention, to name a few. The report is divided into three sections: Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Respect for Civil Liberties, and Respect for Political Rights.
Interestingly, under Section 1, the report points out both structural or formalistic problems and implementation problems. For instance, many remarks on the current criminal code and its recent revisions are discussed. It is remarked that the criminal code “lacks a clear, legal definition of torture, which is not reported as a separate crime”; and that a revision allows for obligatory chemical castration of convicted pedophiles who rape a person less the 15 years of age. Also, structural issues including prisons conditions related to overcrowding and access to specialized medical treatment were discussed. Polish prison occupancy is reportedly at 95% of capacity, and conditions for pretrial detainees were at times worse than for convicted prisoners because of overcrowding. On a positive note, the new provisions of the criminal code of 2009 that attempt to remedy the problem of overcrowding are also mentioned. Further, the establishment of the new ‘e-court,’ able to adjudicate 600,000 routine cases annually was also mentioned. Implementation problems including police use of force and extended pretrial detention were also discussed.
Section two discusses respect for civil liberties. The section begins with a critique of the strict defamation laws, which limit freedom of expression and have implications on the media and editorial independence. Specifically, the report notes that there are many prohibitions on particular kinds of speech including hate speech, the promotion of activities that are against the government, and the promotion of fascist, totalitarian, and communist regimes. The report did note, however, that provisions of these laws are not always enforced, and when prosecuted, they mostly result in the issuance of fines and not prison time. Also interesting in this section, the number of persons granted refugee status was down by 49, with 3,967 cases being refused. The report also notes that although the Polish government provides certain benefits to persons granted refugee or asylum status, these persons often still suffer from discrimination in finding employment.
Under Section 3, Respect for Political Rights, the lack of participation of women in the Sejm, Senat, and Council of ministers was highlighted. Further, a lock of minority members in the cabinet, even though there is a law exempting minorities from the required 5% of the vote nationwide to qualify for individual seats, was mentioned. Further, there was a large discussion on corruption in government and importantly, widespread belief in corruption that curtails public trust in both the executive and judicial branches. Also, domestic violence and discrimination are major areas for improvement in Poland, including discrimination against women in labor relations, anti-Semitism, and discrimination against Roma and LGBT.
In addition to the report being available at the US Department of State website, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/, the US government has a new initiative to collect, report, and distribute human rights information, Humanrights.gov. On this site, one can find a collection of US government reports on both issue specific and country specific human rights themes.
*Laura Heft – an intern at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
