The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Association for Legal Intervention presented their “shadow reports” on the implementation of the Convention by Poland. During an informal meeting with representatives of NGOs members of the Committee asked about cases in which pre-trial proceedings were discontinued because, e.g. a prosecutor found that “the swastika is a symbol of happiness”. The NGOs also highlighted the concerning practice of discontinuing proceedings in hate crimes where a victim does not belong to a minority group against which an act was directed.
“In our report, we paid special attention to the issues related to prosecuting hate crimes”, says Małgorzata Szuleka, HFHR. “However, despite numerous training programmes for prosecutors and Police devoted to this problem, there is still much to be done”, continues Ms Szuleka.
Further, the Committee’s members inquired the Polish government into issues of Roma discrimination. A representative of the Ministry of Administration and Digitisation said that the Roma Programme for the years 2014-2020 is ready and awaits to be signed by the Prime Minister. “Nevertheless, the Polish delegation indicated a whole range of issues, which are yet to be fully addressed, such as an access of Roma children to education”, adds Ms Szuleka.
Moreover, the Committee’s members became concerned with frequent cases of stadium racism. “Fighting racism is a priority of state authorities – there is nothing we are more committed to put an end to than racism, and specifically stadium racism”, said Piotr Stachańczyk, Deputy-minister.
In concluding remarks, Dilip Lahiri, Country Rapporteur for Poland, said that a number of gaps still remained in the Polish legal framework for combating racial discrimination. Mr Lahiri suggested that Poland should perhaps consider a more strategic approach, including special measures for a number of ethnic and racial minority groups.
