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For nearly two years now the European Commission has been demanding for Republic of Poland to amend the contents of regulations concerning equal treatment implemented in the labor code. This relates to European regulations included in EU Directive 2000/78, which establishes general framework conditions for equal treatment in employment and labor. The European Commission has commenced penal proceedings against Republic of Poland due to this unjustified delay.(30-JUN-08)

Disputes quite regularly break out in the Republic of Poland over the issue of abortion. The Polish society recently carried on a heated discussion after the media publicized the case concerning the refusal to perform an abortion for a fourteen-year-old, who was impregnated as a result of a crime. In such a case Polish law permits an abortion to be performed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. As usual Poles were divided over this issue. (27-JUN-08)        

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Civil Development Forum Foundation and the research and advisory firm Komitywa.com. have jointly prepared a report on the usefulness of Polish courts’ websites for citizens. The authors of this report write: ‘If someone wishes to see what Poland’s Internet looked like ten years ago, he/she can easily move back in time by browsing through the internet news bulletins of Polish courts’.(13-JUN-08)

Length of judicial proceedings, overcrowding in prisons, situation of national minorities, education, domestic violence, women’s rights or freedom of the media – these are only some of the issues that concerned Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, who visited Republic of Poland last week.(3-JUN-08)

In March of this year a homeless women died in a sobering-up facility in Poznan. The cause of death was most probably due to the use of very strong insecticides inside the facility. There was hardly ever a doctor present on site, although he was supposed to examine the people transported to the facility. Following these events a discussion swept across the Polish press in connection with the need for these types of institutions to exist and operate.(29-MAY-08)

Six students – participants of the Human Rights Workshops for Students organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights – have decided to fight against verbal discrimination. They contrived a social campaign, the aim of which is to introduce changes in their surroundings. Currently, they are initiating the campaign ‘I feel good in Republic of Poland. Almost always’. (27-MAY-08)
 

To the problem of corruption in Polish football was recently added the issue of racism. There is news of racist outbursts after nearly every round of league play. Clubs, whose arenas stage these excesses, remain unpunished. On 9 of May 2008, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights sent a letter to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in which it voiced serious concern about recent racist incidents. (16-MAY-08)

Jolanta Kramarz, a blind person, has been using a guide dog for several years. Because of the dog, she has not been allowed to enter various public institutions, stores or restaurants. She has also been asked to leave the subway and city buses, despite the existence of the Warsaw City Council resolution, which excludes guide dogs from under all restrictions.(14-MAY-08)

Former Polish President Lech Walesa has been awarded a gilded pigeon statuette, funded on the 60th anniversary of adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly. Lech Walesa received the award on account of his contributions to human rights issues. (12-MAY-08)