Commissioner for Human Rights

Newsletter on key activities of the Commissioner for Human Rights 24 -30 August 2019

VICTIMS OF ACCIDENTS

Starting from 27 September, victims of road accidents to whom the Insurance Guarantee Fund has already paid the full amount awarded as compensation and redress will have the right to apply for a disability pension. Until now, such persons, injured and disabled as a result of road accidents, were subsequently left without support. There are about a hundred of such people in Poland.

The story of the adoption of the parliamentary act concerning the issue is a perfect example of how the engagement of citizens, public institutions and parliamentarians may contribute to removing systemic deficiencies. The story, in which the main person has been Mr Tomasz Piesiecki from Białystok, ended with the publication, on 28 August 2019 in the Journal of Laws (item 1631), of the Act of 19 July 2019 on specific rights of persons who have suffered damages due to the exhaustion of the guaranteed amount of money awarded pursuant to the regulations that were in force before 1 January 2006. The works on the Act lasted over three years and were initiated by the letter of intervention sent to the Senate Committee on Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Petitions. It recommended to the Senate the taking of legislative initiative that resulted in the adoption of the act by the Sejm. (more)

COURTS AND SYSTEM OF JUSTICE

  • The CR has doubts whether the s-called commission on paedophiles should have the power to enter in the Register of Sexual Offenders persons against whom criminal proceedings have been discontinued due to being time barred. (more)
  • The Commissioner launched an ex officio proceeding regarding the termination of parental responsibility of a father convicted for attempting to rape his minor daughter. The proceedings on the case had been ongoing for almost a year. The CHR requested the court to provide explanations. After less than 3 weeks, the court issued a judgment terminating the father’s parental responsibility. (more)
  • One of the key tasks of the state is to clarify whether the recently disclosed actions of staff members of the Ministry of Justice, concerning citizens, did not violate the law, wrote the CHR in his letter of intervention to the president of the Office for Personal Data Protection. (more)
  • The Commissioner joined the case of journalist Grzegorz Rzeczkowski from the Polityka magazine, sued by prosecutors Anna and Przemysław Hopfer. The CHR applied for dismissing the claim which would otherwise mean the deletion of the press articles from the Polityka website. (more)
  • The prosecutor office’s reply concerning the reasons for transferring prosecutor Mariusz Krasoń from Kraków to Wrocław has not been satisfactory. Therefore, the CHR has repeated his questions and reiterated that no regulations allow such treatment of employees. On the contrary, legal protection against such treatment in Poland also covers prosecutors. (more)
  • The CHR has applied to a court to resume proceedings regarding usucaption of a land plot, because the heirs of its pre-war owners had no possibility to find out about the pending proceedings and were thus unable to defend their rights. (more)

EQUAL TREATMENT

  • The CHR is looking into the matter of a xenophobic job offer of a fish restaurant in Gdynia. (more)
  • Recommendations of the Expert Committee on Senior Persons regarding the need to take into account the needs of older people when awarding public contracts. (more)
  • A person whose right to a retirement pension has been granted by a foreign institution is not eligible for a discount for public transport in Warsaw. The inequality of pensioners has raised doubts of the CHR who has sent a letter to the municipal authorities. (more)

OTHER NEWS

  • The Journal of Laws containing the amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure, i.e. the amended Article 485(3) of the Code, has already been published. The previous wording of the regulation made it possible for banks to seek claim repayment by means of court order issued based on copies of bank documents. The Commissioner had intervened before the Minister of Justice regarding the matter. (more)
  • The method of supervision over prisoner's body check: the CHR’s additional opinion on the amendment to the Penalties Enforcement Code. (more)
  • A ceremony commemorating the 75. anniversary of the Łódź ghetto liquidation has been held. (more)
  • The CHR attended the Literature Festival in Miedzianka. (report)