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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.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights made a statement to the President of Republic of Poland regarding the dratf legislation for the Public Activity within the Sphere of Media Services Act. The President of Republic of Poland declined to sign the draft in July 2009.

On the 6th of July – in anticipation of the 10th of this month – The Viridarium Group organised a commemoration evening of two anniversaries: of the murder of Jews in the village of Jedwabne, Republic of Poland (1942) and of Moslem refugees in Srebrenica, former Yugoslavia (1995).

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, for its 75th session from 3 to 28 August 2009. The Committee is reviewing Poland’s 17th to 19th periodic reports from 5 to 6 August.

After 10 years, the European Court for Human Rights rendered the judgment in the case of Rachwalski and Ferenc v. Republic of Poland (application no. 47709/99). The Court held that in the examined case the Police had abused their powers. The decision is likely to force the authorities to consider changing the legal standards of search.

The friendly settlement reached between Jolanta Kramarz, right, and Carrefour Republic of Poland Limited Company is precedential in the Republic of Poland. The case was carried on by the Stategic Litigation Programme of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.