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Since 5 December 2014, the Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova is in prison. She spent her 39th birthday in a prison on 27 May 2015. We repeat our call for her immediate and unconditional release.

Women human rights defenders challenge gender inequality and stereotypes, advance sexual and reproductive rights, and promote women’s empowerment and participation in society. They often challenge religious and cultural norms and patriarchal attitudes that subordinate, stigmatize or restrict women.

A report recently published by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), an alliance of non-governmental organisations acting for refugees, revealed the persistent gaps between the theory and realities of a Common European Asylum System. The report reviews the situation of refugees in 15 Member States of the European Union. The section of the report about Poland was based on information provided by lawyers working with the HFHR.

In the judgment entered in Z. v. Poland the European Court of Human Rights held that it is the state’s duty to take all necessary steps to ensure the exercise of a person’s right to family life, including the right of parental contact with a child. The ECtHR decided the case four years ago. Since that time Poland has taken a number of actions in order to enforce the judgment. However, in the Foundation’s assessment, these actions fell short of the objective of the full implementation of the decision

Endy Gęsina-Torres, a journalist working for Polish national television broadcaster TVP, has been ordered to pay a fine of PLN 2,000 by the Regional Court in Białystok. Last year, Mr Gęsina-Torres orchestrated a journalistic sting to reveal the allegedly abhorrent conditions at the Guarded Centre for Foreigners in Białystok and spent three weeks as an inmate of the facility.

On Thursday, 11 September 2014, at 9:00 am, in courtroom F the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw will hold a hearing in the case of the Military Counter-intelligence Service’s refusal to disclose information on surveillance and the PRISM programme.

The judges who in 2007 did not receive their official appointments to judicial offices lodged applications with the European Court of Human Rights. The applicants are represented by Marcin Ciemiński, an advocate with Clifford Chance.

The three candidates nominated for the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2014 are the Israeli organisation B’Tselem Israeli, the Maltese Jesuit Refugee Service and the Azerbaijani human rights defender Anar Mammadli.

In two week’s time, on Friday, 12 September, at 9 a.m., the Regional Court in Koszalin holds another hearing in the case of Marcin K. The case involves the infringement of personal interests related to molestation of a minor by a priest. The Court will hear testimonies of Archbishops Marian Gołębiewski and Kazimierz Nycz via a video link.