On 3 July, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights approached Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz with an inquiry regarding the status and course of work on the establishment of the office for counteracting discrimination due to race and ethnic origin. Although Poland, as a member of the European Union, is obligated to form an independent office dealing with such issues, up till now this has not been done. (07-JULY-06)

Written by Marta Lempicka/HRH Warsaw

Article 13 of the Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC states that each Member State of the European Union shall designate a body or bodies for the promotion of equal treatment of all persons without discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin and shall ensure that the competences of these bodies. These include providing independent assistance to victims of discrimination in pursuing their complaints about discrimination, conducting independent surveys concerning discrimination, as well as publishing independent reports and making recommendations on any issue relating to such discrimination.

The Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men was supposed to carry out preparations for the establishment of an appropriate office and temporarily, until its establishment, perform its tasks. The office was never formed. In the fall of 2005, the office of the Plenipotentiary was dissolved and its competences were transferred over to the Department for Women, Family and Counteracting Discrimination within the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, excluding however the issues regarding racial and ethnic discrimination. It this situation there can be no mention of the Polish government fulfilling the obligations imposed by the EU Directive.
It his comments to the HFHR letter, the spokesperson for the government, Konrad Ciesio³kiewicz, told the Polish Press Agency that in the government’s opinion there is no need to establish a separate office, since the issues associated with ethnic groups lay within the competence of the Ministry of Interior and Administration.      

The letter from the Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights to Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz