Latest

As a party invited to the public consultations, the HFHR presented before the Sejm and Senate committees a critical review of the draft amendment to the provisions on correction and response in the Press Act. The Foundation prepared a long list of reservations concerning the draft prepared by the Sejm and Senate committees.

In March 2012, the European Court of Human Rights accepted a unilateral declaration of the Polish Government and decided to strike the case of Sroka v. Poland off the case list. The case concerned the criminal judgement against an editor-in-chief found guilty of refusing to publish a correction to an article.

In Katowice, a tactical unit of the police deployed to arrest a wanted criminal targeted the wrong apartment and subdued an innocent couple. The HFHR issued a letter to the Chief Commissioner of the Police, expressing concern over the course of the unit’s action.

In March a public hearing on the alleged existence of CIA prisons in Europe was held before the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. The hearing was attended by representatives of non-governmental organisations, including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Reprieve.

In March 2012, the International Detention Coalition, supported by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, launched an international campaign to abolish the placement of foreign children in guarded facilities. The IDC launched its policy document on a new model of immigration detention, which protects the rights and liberties of children of asylum seekers and irregular migrants.

In March the Supreme Court dismissed a cassation complaint filed by the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok. This marked the end of a four-year long trial against Dariusz Basałaj, a prison guard working at the Detention Centre in Białystok. In 2009 Mr Basałaj was charged with contributing to the death of one of the inmates. The facts of the case go back to April 2008 when Andrzej Ł., a state witness, hanged himself in the in-cell sanitary annex of one of cells in the detention centre in Białystok.

The Court of Appeal in Poznań ruled that the request to leave a Poznań restaurant which had been directed to a Roma guest had been discriminatory. The Court held that the owner of the club Cuba Libre had acted unlawfully. The incident took place on 10 December 2010. On that day the claimant, Adam G. and three other people went to the Cuba Libre restaurant.

The case pending before the District Court in Rzeszów concerns the legality of surrendering the wanted M.D. to the Republic of Turkey. The individual is a Turkish Kurd. In 1996 he was sentenced to harsh life imprisonment by the State Security Court in Izmir. Further, upon the abolishment of the State Security Courts, his sentence was changed to a term of imprisonment which was subsequently upheld by the Turkish Supreme Court.

Józef Głuchowski sued two bank establishments in Warsaw alleging that his personal interests had been infringed upon as the banks had denied him access to toilet facilities. The last hearing ended with the settlement between the claimant and one of the banks. By the settlement, the bank agreed, among other things, to make its toilets available to customers.