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Republic of Poland, as one of the first UN countries, was subject to the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights procedure. The review is conducted by the UN Human Rights Council. Polish nongovernmental organizations, i.e. the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, questioned the governmental report stating that in this report the government presented the situation in the Republic of Poland ´in a simplified and overly optimistic manner´. (24-APR-08)
 

On 14 April 2008, TNS OBOP published a study regarding the issue of: ´Our perception of refugees´. The study was based on a sample of 1000 randomly selected residents of Warsaw and 500 people from the nearby town of Gora Kalwaria, where a refugee center is located. It is difficult for refugees to become assimilated with the Polish society. Why? (18-APR-08)
 

On 10 April, as part of the Thursday Club, the Association POLIS invited the originators and participants of the undertaking ´Hominem Quaero´ to share their experiences from the implementation of this pro-tolerance project, which was created as an answer to a need of breaking interculutral and interpersonal barriers in a culturally and ethnically homogeneous polish society. (11-APR-08)

On 18 January, a Romanian citizen died at a hospital in Krakow after being transported there from a detention awaiting trial. Doctors stated extreme emaciation of his organism as a result of a four-month-long hunger strike. The 33-year old Claudiu Crulic (1.75 m in height) weighed 40 kg at the time of death. The case was recently described by the weekly ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’. (09-APR-08)

For some time now, the Court in Strasbourg has been re-broadcasting hearings held before the Grand Chamber, which could later be watched in the Internet. These are usually very interesting cases that deal with issues controversial from the perspective of human rights. For the first time, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights organized a session of shared watching of a trial held before the ECHR.(29-MAR-08)

On March 10, 2008 on the streets of Lhasa Tibetan monks of the Sera and Drepung monasteries started their peaceful protests. 11 March 2008 – the Chinese authorities used tear gas and two days later military and police forces to pacify those marches. It is said that there were hundreds of killed and wounded. Protests are breaking out in consecutive monasteries and are being pacified by the authorities.(21-MAR-08)

On 17 June 2008, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is going to consider the complaint of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (PAOC) versus Republic of Poland regarding its right to property to nationalized Post-Uniate places of worship. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, according to which this is one of the few inter-denominational conflicts in present-day Republic of Poland, is involved in the case.(14-MAR-08)

A seminar organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights as part of the program “Anti-Discrimination and Diversity training; VT/2006/009”, funded by the European Commission, took place in Warsaw on 29 February – 1 March 2008. Representatives of nongovernmental organizations and trade unions dealing with the subject matter of anti-discrimination throughout Republic of Poland participated in seminar.(05-MAR-08)

A delegation of “experts” from the Ministry of Public Security of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is in the Republic of Poland, and according to Polish newspapers its officials are interrogating their compatriots. – They are doing this only in the presence of Polish civil servants – assures the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA). – That is not true – say the interrogated Vietnamese. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has also taken a position in this case. (29-FEB-08)