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The HFHR was approached by the attorney for X.Y., a litigant in several commercial proceedings pending before the Circuit Court in Z. The initial analysis of two rulings made in these proceedings shows that their wording, to a major extent, repeats the content of two earlier cases decided by other adjudication panels of the same Court. The only differences are details such as case numbers or dates of events.

On 14 December the Constitutional Tribunal examined the constitutionality of the press registration requirement. The Constitutional Tribunal found that Article 45 of the Press Law providing for the criminal liability for the failure to register a journal or magazine is in violation of the freedom of expression and the right to obtain opinion.

In its address to the Minister of Health, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights warns that ‘as from 1 January 2012, protection of patients’ rights in Poland may be significantly weakened’ as a result of the controversial amendment to the Drug Reimbursement Act. The amendment is coming into force in January 2012.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights together with the Horizon Group Against the Death Penalty called President Alexander Lukashenko to pardon Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov, the two men sentenced to death for bombing the underground railway in Minsk. According to the organisations such a ‘humanitarian gesture’ would be ‘worthy’ of the nation led by Mr Lukashenko.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and Open Society Foundations have the pleasure to announce the next of the series of Marek Nowicki memorial lectures.This year’s lecture ‘Towards the universal abolition of the death penalty’ will be given by Prof. Robert Badinter a well-known lawyer, lecturer at the Paris Sorbonne University, advocate of abolishing the death penalty. In 1981 he succeeded in abolishing the death penalty in France.

On Thursday, 24 November 2011, a Belarus court handed down a four-and-half-year prison sentence to Ales Belyatsky, human rights activist and the head of the Human Rights Centre ‘Viasna’. Belyatsky was also ordered to pay a fine of 721 million Belarusian rubles ($83,000). The conviction was based on the information on Mr Belyatsky’s bank accounts in Poland which the Belarusian authorities had received from the Polish Prosecutor General’s Office.

The HFHR’s Strategic Litigation Programme has won the European Award for Partnership in the Public Interest bestowed by the Public Interest Law Network (PILnet) for the most effective public-interest collaboration with law firms in 2011. The Award was handed out during the 2011 European Pro Bono Forum in Berlin. PILnet is a global organisation acting to strengthen civil society through inspiring and engaging lawyers in public interest actions.

This year, WATCH DOCS organisers have invited Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights and peace activist, to sit on the jury of the Festival. In this way, they joined the “Empty Chair” campaign. As one of the signatories to the “Charter 08″, Liu Xiaobo called for bringing democracy to and abolishing the one-party system in China. In 2010 Mr Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Court of Appeal revoked the judgement in the case of Waldemar T. charged with a high-profile murder at Palisadowa Street in Warsaw. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has been taking an ongoing interest in the trial against Waldemar T. for more than ten years. In the recent judgement, issued in November, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw once again ordered re-trial.