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The Equality Parade, i.e. the sexual minorities march organized by the Equality Foundation, passed through the streets of Warsaw on Saturday, June 10. The Parade was held within the confines of the Equality Days, which take place this year on June 8-15 under the banner: Culture of Diversity. For the first time in several years the demonstration was legal (14-JUNE-06).
 

On 8 June, the Minister of Education, Roman Giertych, dismissed the head of the National In-Service Teacher Training Center (CODN), Mr. Miroslaw Sielatycki. The cause for the dismissal was the publication of the book “Compass – A manual on human rights education with young people”, which, according to the Minister, encourages people to meet with homosexual organizations and promotes homosexuality. (14-JUNE-06)

Helsinki Committee in Poland is concerned by the current suggestions that the Lustration Court should be abolished and to transfer the burden of proof onto individuals who challenge allegations of their having collaborated with the security agencies of the PRL in court. (02-JUNE-06)

A wave of protests against the new Minister of Education is sweeping across Republic of Poland. Pupils, students, teachers, individuals from the world of science and culture, as well as parents have been manifesting their disagreement with the appointment of Roman Giertych, the leader of the radical right-wing party – League of Polish Families (LPR), for this position. (19-MAY-06)
 

Marek Antoni Nowicki, a member of the Helsinki Committee in Poland (HC), explains that in its new statement the Committee defends freedom of parliamentary debate not Andrew Lepper himself. Under democracy it is important that parliamentarians, especially those of the opposition, should not have to censor their statements during parliamentiary debates for fear of criminal responsibility. (12-MAY-06)
 

On 4 May 2006 The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) published a report entitled “Roma and Travellers in Public Education”, which deals with the education of Roma residing in all European Union countries. The fragments devoted to Republic of Poland were written based on the information provided by the National Focal Points RAXEN Network. Agnieszka Mikulska, right, played a key part in the process. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is the National Focal Point in the Republic of Poland. (12-MAY-06)
 

On March 27, Radio Maryja broadcast an editorial by Stanislaw Michalkiewicz regarding the claims of Jewish organizations against the Polish government concerning the inheritance property of Holocaust victims. (28-APR-06)

On 11 April 2006 the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights published a report devoted to the problem of preventing torture at Polish closed institutions. This report constitutes a summary of a three-year program financed by the European Commission and performed simultaneously in six countries by six national Helsinki Committees (Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Republic of Poland, the Russian Federation, Serbia/Montenegro and Hungary). (22-APR-06)

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights stood up for Hanna Rozanska – a woman directed for psychiatric examinations at a closed ward. The Foundation’s lawyers lodged a complaint to the Constitutional Tribunal against the imprecise regulations of the Code of Penal Proceedings. (08-APR-06)