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Responding to the pre-trial detention of the civic journalist Paweł M. the HFHR has sent a letter to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Zielona Góra. In summer 2012 the man posed as the Cabinet’s staff member to expose the head judge of the Gdańsk’s Circuit Court, who expressed a willingness to cave in to the apparent political pressure in the case of the former boss of Amber Gold accused of orchestrating the notorious financial fraud scheme.

Honorata Kaczmarek made an application to the European Court of Human Rights arguing, among other things, that her right to privacy had been violated. The case involves the publication of Ms Kaczmarek’s personal data during a notorious press conference.

In response to the HFHR’s application for the disclosure of information on the inquiry into CIA secret prisons in Poland, the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow revealed that it moved the Prosecutor General to extend the inquiry until 11 June 2014.

In March 2013, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the protection of human rights defenders. It establishes principles and standards for States to create an enabling environment for human rights defenders. One year after its adoption, the Human Rights House Network calls upon States to implement this resolution.

In many parts of the Balkans, Caucasus and Eastern Europe human rights defenders face threats and violence, slander and intimidations, and are the targets of new laws restricting their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and simply to work to defend human rights.

Three years ago the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a lack of procedure allowing for the effective pursuit of compensation in a situation where a person is unable to use their property for its intended purpose constitutes a breach of property rights.

The Polish Bank Association informed the HFHR that in May 2013 the organisation prepared the Best Practices in the Provision of Banking Services for Persons with Disabilities.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has presented a legal brief in the case of Orlandi and others v. Italy, currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights. The case concerns the violation of the right to respect for private and family life resulting from the Italian authorities’ denial to register a civil partnership entered into abroad.

According to the data from the Ministry of Justice there is a drop in the number of pre-trial detention orders. In 2011, district courts issued more than 18,000 orders, whereas in 2012 the figure fell to 15,000. It seems that decisions to admit motions to order pre-trial detention filed by prosecutors are taken by courts in a somewhat automatic way.