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The 7th International Film Festival Watch Docs – Human Rights in Film is currently taking place in Warsaw. The festival is organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Public Film Institute and the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. The best documentaries from around the world, which use an interesting and original form to deliver contents associated with human rights tactics, will be presented during the festival that will last from 7 to 16 December.( 10-DEC-07)

The Warsaw City Council decided that Hyde Park – a place where it will be possible to organize an assembly without informing the capital’s president in advance and without the need to receive many permits – will be set up in front of the Palace of Culture and Science (right). It is the first place like that in the Republic of Poland. Opening ceremony will take place on December 12, 2007. (05-DEC-07)

A lecture by Judge Aharon Barak (right), former President of the Israeli Supreme Court, entitled “In Search of Common Sense – Proportionality and Balancing Interests in Constitutional Adjudication” was held on 30 November 2007 in the Adam Mickiewicz assembly hall at Warsaw University’s Auditorium Maximum.  (01-DEC-07)

On 16 November, the Ecumenical Foundation “Tolerance” honored the HFHR for “outstanding achievements in promoting idea of tolerance” by awarding it a diploma and the “Deserved for Tolerance” medal. The awarding ceremony takes place each year during the International Tolerance Day set by UNESCO.(19-NOV-07)

After a long period of waiting, the inaugural session of the Human Rights Advisory Panel – a special body competent to consider the complaints of citizens against human rights violations by the international United Nations administration in Kosovo – will take place on 15 November 2007 in Pristina in Kosovo. Marek Antoni Nowicki, the President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is a member of the Panel.(13-NOV-07)

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has on numerous occasions expressed its concerns regarding examples of applying regulations of the Penal Code that penalize defamation towards journalists in the Republic of Poland. At the same time, the Foundation has long demanded for Article 212, which provides grounds to sentence an individual even to the punishment of imprisonment for defamation, to be removed from the Polish Penal Code.(08-NOV-07)

In recent months, lawyers from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Legal Assistance for Refugees and Migrants Program regularly received information from foreigners, who were granted the permit for tolerated stay in Republic of Poland, about problems associated with issuing resident cards. The above information was confirmed during conversations between the Program’s lawyers and officials from the Office for Foreigners.(03-NOV-07)

The ´Thursday Club´ [Klub Czwartkowy] was officially opened on Monday, 8 October 2007. The meetings are a new initiative of the Young Journalists Association POLIS, a member organisation of the HR House in Warsaw, and are partially linked with the journalist workshops organized by this association. The club members’ meetings are held every week and Halina Bortnowska is their animator.(26-OCT-07)

On 10 October 2007 in Kosovo, the Parliamentary Commission for Legislative and Constitutional Matters approved a short list (3 candidates) for the Ombudsperson in Kosovo position. The Parliament will vote over them soon. The same day, Marek Antoni Nowicki, former Ombudsperson in Kosovo, at present the President of the Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, sent an open letter to the President of the Assembly of Kosovo, Mr. Kole Berisha, in which he wrote about his concern regarding the current election procedure. ( 19-OCT-07)