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On 26 December about three thousand Polish observers, sent by the OSCE and ENEMO, the student organisation Free Ukraine, the political parties Law and Justice and the Freedom Union, monitored the repeat second round of the presidential election in the Ukraine. (30-DEC-04)

4th International Film Festival “Human Rights in Film” organized by The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights took place in Warsaw between December 10th  and 15th, 2004. The main themes of the 4th Festival were the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea, faces of terrorism, Latin America, incarceration institutions, discrimination against sexual minorities, refugees, Tibet, Palestine – Israel and the Holocaust. (21-DEC-04)

The first of a series of lectures devoted to the memory Marek Nowicki, the late president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, was held on Saturday, /November 28th/. The lecture was delivered by Professor Arthur Chaskalson, the Chief Justice of the High Court of the Republic of South Africa. (02-DEC-04)

For another day Polish students in Warsaw demonstrate their opposition to frauded election in Ukraine. In the streets, there are also human rights activists, politicians and inhabitants of the capital city. The people dressed in orange shout: “We won´t leave Ukraine”, “Kiev – Warsaw common matter” and “Ukraine without Putin”. (24-11-04)

On 17-21 November, the Days of Equality and Tolerance are held in Poznan. The culminating point of the event is going to be the Equality March planned for 20 November. The City Mayor issued the permit to organise the march, however, the right wing local government activists are protesting, claiming that the march is an “endorsement of homosexuality”. (17-11-04)
 

On 4th of November the Polish Sejm passed the Act on National Minorities, which had been in the making for 11 years. The act contains a catalogue of the rights of the people belonging to minorities, which are already guaranteed by other Polish legal acts. The right to use a minority language as a auxiliary language at offices of administration, which has been the aim of the exertions of minority circle members in the Republic of Poland, was not included in the act. (08-11-04)

Today experts from the UN Human Rights Committee are going through Poland´s periodic report on the realization of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In their prepared counter-reports, non-government organizations reproached the government first and foremost for discontinuing cases concerning beating up by the police, the reproductive policy, which brought wretched results, as well as homophobia. (28-OCT-04)

“The Efficient Court. A Collection of Good Practices” is the title of a book created over several years by a group of Polish judges. The group acted as part of the Association of Polish Judges “Iustitia”, in co-operation with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. The book contains a series of verified ideas for resolving the problems of the Polish administration of justice. (22-OCT-04)
 

From September there is an opportunity to see an exhibition at the Warsaw University Library of photographs by Cuban women entitled “This is our problem too”. (06-SEP-04)