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The HFHR has submitted the second legal opinion on the Polish Senate’s draft amendment to the Upbringing in Sobriety and Alcoholism Prevention Act, Sejm paper no. 978. In April 2012 the Constitutional Tribunal (case no. K 12/11) found that the provisions relating to the imposition of charges for a stay in a sobriety station were unconstitutional.

“Anton’s Right Here”, the film début of the famous Russian film critic Lyubov Arkus has received the first prize of the 12th International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film. Apart from the prize for the Arkus’ documentary, the jury has awarded a special commendation to Ilan Metev’s “Sofia’s Last Ambulance”. The audience award went to ”Call Me Kuchu”.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Association for Legal Intervention called on Brig. Gen. Dominik Tracz, Chief Commissioner of the Border Guards, to change a practice of his agency that infringes the right to court exercisable by foreigners applying for the refugee status in Poland.

Amnesty International, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Association for Legal Intervention warn that the draft Foreigners Act fails to provide remedies against detaining immigrant children in prison-like guarded facilities. The coalition of the NGOs has been campaigning for several months seeking to ban the detention of foreign migrants’ children.

The Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw admitted the complaint of a homosexual Ugandan national who challenged the decision denying him a refugee status and other forms of legal protection. The HFHR joined in the proceedings as a community organisation. If no cassation complaint is filed, the foreigner won’t be expelled from Poland and the Council for Foreigners will reconsider the foreigner’s application with the court’s directions.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a decision on Mr Kovalev’s case. In March this year, Vladislav Kovalev was executed for his alleged complicity in carrying out a bomb attack on the Minsk metro in April 2011. The Human Rights Committee found violations of the human rights treaty obligations of Belarus laid down in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol to the Covenant.

The IGPPD supported the proposal of the HFHR which advocates that the type of information included on case lists should be regulated by universally applicable legislation. n October 2012, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights addressed the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data on the issue of entering personal data in case lists displayed in courts. The HFHR requested the IGPPD to consider bringing this problem to the attention of the Minister of Justice.

Open Society Foundations and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights have the pleasure to announce the next of the series of Marek Nowicki memorial lectures. Lecture entitled “Constitutional Interdependence between the Constitutional Tribunal and the Human Rights Defender. Human Rights Protection” will be held by Professor Ewa Łętowska.

On 7 December 2012, the 12th edition of the International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film will be launched. The Festival’s Programme includes nearly 90 films divided into five permanent sections, three retrospectives and a competition.