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Civil society and national and international bodies have expressed concern at recent reforms in Poland and their impact on the rule of law. These reforms include changes to the functioning of the Constitutional Court, a law granting government control over TV and radio, a law granting additional powers of surveillance, and the merging of the functions of the Justice Minister and the formerly independent Prosecutor General.

318 Polish non-governmental organizations have signed an open letter to the Prime Minister Beata Szydło, urging her to take action in response to verbal abuse and violent physical attacks on NGOs and activists, which recently took place in Warsaw.

The Venice Commission and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe are in Poland this week to meet with officials and NGOs regarding the constitutional crisis.

The Human Rights House Network is deeply concerned by the constitutional crisis in Poland, which threatens its status as an example of democracy and rule of law in Europe.

The new governing party, the Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), is rapidly making, and planning changes to the Constitutional Tribunal, the public media, the Act on Police and the justice system.

HRHN strongly supports Civic Solidarity Platform opposition to recent developments affecting human rights protection and the state of democracy in Poland.

HRHN welcomes the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the resolution. This will protect, empower, and support human rights defenders, and address the increasingly threatening climate in which they work.

The Human Rights House Network marks November 2nd, the International Day to End Impunity, by demanding justice for all journalists who have been killed because of their work, and calling for the removal of impunity to create safer environments for journalists to operate in.

FUTURE DOCS is a new European project of the WATCH DOCS IFF for documentarians and human rights defenders.

Warsaw, 23 September 2015 – Human Rights House Network has highlighted the growing intimidation and persecution of human rights lawyers, and made the case for strengthening the protection they receive, in its report Human Rights Lawyers at Risk: Making the Case for Protection of Legal Professionals in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.