In the begining the Government underlined that the aim of the report is to update information contained in the fifteenth and sixteenth periodic reports of Poland (CERD/C/384/Add.6) to the Committee and to present the legal situation and practice in the scope of implementation by the Republic of Poland of the provisions of the Convention in the period between January 2000 and July 2005, taking account of changes in Polish legislation in relation to the former report. The Reports are available here.

The Committee during its Seventy- fifth session (3rd to 28th August 2009) prepared the Questions addressed to Government of Poland (“List of Issues”).

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights submitted on 30 July 2009 the replies to “List of Issues”. HFHR presented some concerns raised in the protection of minority rights. HFHR gave an exapmle of the Polish Public Television (Telewizja Polska S.A.) that made a decision to stop broadcasting the only TV program in the Ukrainian language, "Telenowyny," which was intended for the Ukrainian minority living dispersed throughout the country.

On 28 July 2009, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights made a public statement regarding this issue. HFHR claimed that this decision made by the Polish Public Television violates several national and international standards. In particular, we referred to Article 11, para. 1 section (c) (ii) of the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages.

HFHR underlined also a problem of racist and anti-Semitic publications and broadcasting.

There is an example of inability of the Polish authorities to deal with a neofascist website: www.redwatch.info. It is a website that has been operating since January 2006 and has presented materials of a fascist and racist nature. In particular, the website lists a number of people who, in the opinion of the authors of the website, represent a threat to Polish society. Information on the website includes photos, addresses and even mobile phone numbers of these people. Despite the arrest of three people connected with Red Watch, this website continues to operate. The Polish government tried to intervene in this respect with the US authorities (where the servers are located). However, assistance has been refused. Consequently, the website is still operating and there is no real and effective measure which can change this situation. There are new servers where the website also operates. Since the establishment of the website, a few proceedings have been undertaken with the aim of identifying the website managers but they did not end in formulating the bill of indictment.

HFHR mentioned also that the head of Polish public television from December 2008 till September 2009 was a young man who used to be the publisher of a racist newsletter called “Front” (its editorial line was the following: “We don’t tolerate cowards, snitches and Jews.”). His election as vice-president of the public television in 2006 was supported by the League of the Polish Families and the Law and Justice Party. From the beginning of his term as president of the public television, Piotr Farfał imposed his will steadily, purging the network of journalists and officials opposed to him and his nationalist line. He has also given prominence to eurosceptic views challenging the European Union, forcing a break in programming to broadcast an interview with Declan Ganley. Recently, he took one of Poland’s largest dailies (Gazeta Wyborcza) to court for calling him a “former neo-nazi." In February, the court ruled against him, with the judge saying that Farfal was a public figure, “who should not be one because of the views he once expressed.”

One of the country’s most dynamic companies is allegro.pl, an Internet auction house (described by the company itself as ‘a copy of eBay’), and is allowing auction sites that sell Nazi memorabilia. Polish NGOs and dailies intervened on this issue. A lawyer representing allegro.pl told the media: “According to current legislation, only people can incite to racial hatred (not things)”. There was no reaction on this issue by the Polish prosecution.

HFHR emphasised also the lack of comprehensive anti-discrimination laws that protect different fields of social life from discrimination due to racial or ethnic origin. In fact, only the field of labour law is adequately regulated from this type of discrimination. There is also no equality body that prevents the development of policies towards counteracting discrimination. Accordingly, the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC (“RED”) has not been implemented in Poland in this respect.

HFHR underlined the main problems of the office of plenipotentiary for equal treatment (a member of the cabinet in the rank of the secretary of state in the Chancellary of the Prime Minister):
• lack of clear distinction of the competencies in between the office and other institutions dealing with discrimination issues – such as the Department for Women, Family and Counteracting Discrimination within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy;
• lack of independence, since the office is placed within the government, precisely in the office of the Prime Minister;
• lack of separate budget;
• lack of adequate staff;
• lack of information policy.

On 14 May 2009, the European Commission referred Poland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for non-transposition of EU rules in prohibiting gender discrimination in access to and supply of goods and services (Directive 2004/113/EC). The implementation of this Directive is provided in the same draft anti-discrimination law, which implements the RED and its provisions on access to supplies of goods and services. There is a chance that due to the pending case before the ECJ, the
Government will accelerate its work on the anti-discrimination issue.

According to the issue of dicrimination of Roma, The Committee recomended to:

  • enhance its efforts towards the full integration of the Roma into Polish society and combat discrimination against the Roma by improving the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, particularly in education, employment and housing;
  • develop and implement poverty eradication programmes to combat poverty among the Roma and other economically marginalised population groups;
  • provide updated statistical information and data on life expectancy and poverty levels in the State party, disaggregated by region and ethnic group;
  • implement the necessary measures to address the low attendance levels of Roma children, giving due weight to all the factors which account for these levels;
  • develop and implement strategies to improve access to mainstream education for Roma children;
  • increase the availability of bilingual education; and
  • ensure adequate forms and schemes of education for members of Roma communities beyond school age, in order to improve adult literacy among them.

The Committee recommended also that the State party enhance its efforts to address racially motivated hate crimes by ensuring that all such incidents are thoroughly investigated and that perpetrators are brought to justice, and by continuing to raise awareness of the extent of ethnic discrimination and intolerance among local authorities and the general public.

The Committee urged Poland to expedite the passing of legislation to criminalise the promotion of racial hatred and racial discrimination and the dissemination of racist material and ideology and to take firm measures to prosecute and punish those responsible.