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The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has published the report ‘Class action suits after a year from their introduction’. ‘The institution of a class action suit is not a revolutionary change in the Polish law’, says Marek Niedużak, the author of the report. ‘Still, this is an important step towards a better access to justice’, he adds.

The Senate’s Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Petitions Committee and the Legislative Committee of the Polish Senate held a joint meeting. The agenda of the meeting included the amendment to the Penal Execution Code. The draft law proposes major changes to the current wording of the Code. The HFHR presented its position on the issue of legislative changes.

The Head of the Government Legislation Centre (RCL) responded to the HFHR’s letter concerning the amendment to the Assemblies Act. Maciej Berek, Head of the RCL, said there had been no defects in the RCL’s course of action discussed in the letter. In August 2011 the HFHR appealed in this case to the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a draft resolution on the abuse of the state secrecy privilege by intelligence services acting to protect state security. The draft resolution was based on the latest Dick Marty’s report, which analysed the issue of the accountability of certain CE member states for their participation in the CIA-operated clandestine rendition and detention programme.

On Monday, 5 September, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Polish Chamber of Press Publishers and Association of Local Newspapers launched the campaign ‘Let’s delete Article 212 of the Criminal Code’.Currently, article 212 provides for a penalty of fine or limitation of liberty (community work) for the offence of defamation.

In mid-August a train derailed near Piotrków Trybunalski, central Poland. One person died and more than eighty others were injured in the crash. By order of the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski, the train driver who had been in charge of the locomotive was remanded in custody pending trial.The counsel for the defendant appealed against the court’s decision. The HFHR filed an amicus curiae brief with the court which heard the appeal.

On 29 August 2011 the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights sent a letter to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers raising the issue of the Polish authorities’ failure to properly implement the ECHR judgement in the case of Wasilewska and Kałucka v. Poland. The case of Wasilewska and Kałucka v. Poland concerns the violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights asked the Prosecutor General to reveal whether the Polish prosecution service provided the Belarusian authorities with information on other Belarusian oppositionists. Early August this year it came to light that Polish Prosecution Service provided the Belarusian law enforcement with information regarding Ales Belyatsky.

The Central Prison Service Authority reports that the average population of penal institutions and remand centres in Poland stands at 97.8 per cent of the institutions’ capacity. Yet, the detailed statistical data from mid-July 2011 indicate that in many places the occupancy level exceeds 100 per cent, reaching the alarming 129 per cent in some establishments.