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Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in its Resolution 1891 (2012) calls on the member States of the Council of Europe to “ensure observance of fundamental freedoms of human rights defenders and put an end to any administrative, fiscal or judicial harassment of human rights defenders.”

During its last session, the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament passed amendments to the Assemblies Act. The new restrictions are unnecessary and excessive.

On 31 July 2012, the Government adopted a document entitled “Poland’s Migration Policy – Current Status and Proposed Course of Action”. The proposed solutions, designed for economic and forced migrants, involve legalisation procedures, integration and combating illegal migration.

Increasingly more people address the Foundation claiming they have a problem with accessing files from pre-trial investigation, which contain evidence in support of a motion to impose pre-trial detention. The obstacles encountered by suspects and their counsel in their efforts to have the files disclosed may lead to a violation of the equality of arms principle and the principle of adversarial nature of criminal proceeding.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, issued a letter to the Polish Minister of Justice, Jarosław Gowin, regarding the offence of defamation. Dunja Mijatović argues that protesting against Andrzej Poczobut being sentenced by a Belarusian court for defaming President Lukashenko, and simultaneously retaining a controversial legal regulation, makes Poland lose its credibility.

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day, Amnesty International, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Polish Humanitarian Action and the Association for Legal Intervention warn about a difficult situation of migrant children in Poland. In 2011, more than 500 foreign children, including refugee children, and their guardians were detained and placed in guarded centres for foreigners.

The HFHR has appealed to Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament and to the European External Action Service on the conditions of detention and treatment of Ales Belyatsky, a Belarusian human rights defender, who is currently serving his time in a penal colony. Mr Belyatsky was sentenced to four and half years in a high-security colony and property forfeiture for alleged tax evasion.

The HFHR requested General Krzysztof Bondaryk, head of the Internal Security Agency, to take decisive actions in the case of repetitive anti-Semitic assaults in Lublin. In its intervention, the HFHR recalled the case of Tomasz Pietrasiewicz, leader of The Grodzka Gate –Theatre NN in Lublin.

The Supreme Court dismissed the cessation appeal of M.R., a former assistant to a Supreme Administrative Court judge and a trainee legal advisor, indicating that a role of a judicial assistant may not be combined with a legal advisor’s professional training.