In the resolution, the Parliamentary Assembly CoE pointed at Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Romania, The Russia Federation, Turkey, Ukraine and Poland as the nine countries in which the structural problems in implementation of ECHR have arisen. In these states the ECHR repetitively finds violations of the European Convention for Human Rights in similar cases. In the opinion of the Parliamentary Assembly CoE such a situation seriously undermines the rule of law in the states concerned.
The Committee of Ministers has already registered 9.700 cases concerning the wrong implementation of ECHR’s judgments to the national legal system, among which 760 cases refer to Poland.
In the opinion of the Parliamentary Assembly CoE the excessive length of procedures before courts and administrative authorities, as well as that of detention on remand, are key issues that Poland must tackle.
In 2009 the ECHR passed a judgment in a case Kauczor v. Poland in which it appreciated the efforts of the Polish government in order to solve the problems of unlawful detention and excessive length of detention on remand. However, since that time the practice in these fields has not changed significantly. For instance, Poland organized in last years trainings on using the detention on remand for judges and prosecutors. However, the trainings were addressed to the limited number of participants, and thus did not meet the real necessities.
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights called to the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Polish Parliament to undertake actions in order to implement the recommendations included in the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly CoE. In the opinion of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, proper implementation of these recommendations will be a prove that Poland is a democratic state which seriously respects the principle of the rule of law and protection of human rights.
