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HFHR received an appeal for help from an inhabitant of Łomża living alone in a social housing apartment. He is a physically disabled, wheelchair-bound person. The apartment he presently occupies is on the 8th floor and cannot be directly accessed by means of an elevator. Additionally, the shared toilet in the corridor is not equipped for the needs of disabled persons and does not guarantee ease of use and privacy they require.

The District Court for Łódź Śródmieście acquitted Krzysztof Kuszej on all counts. The artist from Łódź was charged with recording pornographic content depicting minors as well as propagation and endorsement of paedophile activities in his works which addressed the issue of paedophilia in the Catholic Church.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed the Foundation on the measures taken to clear up the circumstances of the Sergei Magnitsky’s death. The Ministry’s letter indicated that as a result of the collaboration of the European states, including Poland, on 27 March 2012 the European Council took a position and called on Russia to not only pursue a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky but also to close the long-pending proceedings and to hold the guilty accountable for their actions.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg communicated to the Polish authorities the application brought in the case of al-Nashiri vs. Poland. The ECtHR obliged the Polish Government to disclose a series of information concerning the case of 5 September 2012.

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.