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During the Communist rule in the Republic of Poland, an administrative mechanism of property acquisition was put in place. It allowed the state to take over private properties located in the areas designated for construction of public roads without any particular statutory or contractual basis. In law, private owners still retained the title to such properties yet in fact the land was held by the state.

On 15 September 2009 the European Court of Human Rights passed a judgement in the case of Jamrozy v. Republic of Poland (application no. 6093/04) concerning the extensive length of pre-trial detention. Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights presented third-party comments on the case.

For about twenty years, gatherings of cyclist enthusiasts or ‘Critical Masses’ have been held all over the world to direct public attention to the bikers’ presence on roads. In the Republic of Poland, the movement is quite vigorous.

The Polish Constitution from 1997 deprived incapacitated persons of their voting rights. Meanwhile, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, signed by Republic of Poland, asserts the voting rights to mentally disabled people regardless of legal incapacitation. During last voting to European Parliament, incapacitated persons were not entitled to vote (as well as in every voting after 1997). Article 7 paragraph 2 point 3 of Polish Voting Ordinance do European Parliament points out that incapacitated persons are deprived of the right to vote.

Since few years in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and in the office of Government’s Agent for Equal Treatment lasts legislation work on the proposal of an act on equal treatment. Its main aim is to implement the EU directives concerning the rule of non-discrimination into polish law.

Proceedings against a journalist and a member of the Polish Hunting Association (PZŁ) are pending before the Circuit Hunting Tribunal in Warsaw. The latter was brought before a peer tribunal for informing the public about irregularities in one of the local hunting associations.

In July 2009, the proposal to impose on parliamentary, municipal or presidential candidates a duty to produce a doctor’s certificate regarding their mental condition put forward by the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich, RPO), was widely discussed.

On 22 June 2009 Polish Constitutional Tribunal announced a judgement in case concerning the functioning of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA; signature K 54/07).

The prohibition of discrimination in employment is a basic principle in polish labour law and in the European Union Law (directive 2000/78/EC). “Ekotrade” case is one of the first discrimination cases before Polish courts and it shows how this principle functions in fact.