{"id":11743,"date":"2021-05-14T10:03:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T08:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/?p=11743"},"modified":"2021-05-14T10:03:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T08:03:55","slug":"joint-statement-in-support-of-the-office-of-the-polish-commissioner-for-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/joint-statement-in-support-of-the-office-of-the-polish-commissioner-for-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint statement in support of the Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global and European human rights networks and organizations issued a statement on May 14 2021 in<\/strong> support of the Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Ombudswoman Tena \u0160imonovi\u0107 Einwalter<\/strong> supports the Statement as Chair of European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet), one of the signatories, along with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI), International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR) and the United Nations Human Rights European Regional Office.<\/p>\n

In the Statement, they emphasize that an effective and independent National Human Rights Institution (NHRI), ombudsman institution and equality body are necessary features of any democratic State, underpinning human rights, good governance and justice. In this context, the signed organizations reiterate strong support for the Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, an ombudsman institution, equality body, and accredited as A-status NHRI, in its work to promote and protect human rights and equality in Poland in an independent and effective manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish to express our concern regarding developments that may threaten the work of this important institution. We note that Poland\u2019s parliament is currently engaged in the process of selecting a new Commissioner, as the current Commissioner\u2019s term of office came to an end on 9 September 2020.\u00a0 According to established law and procedure, the current Commissioner should remain in the post until a successor is appointed. We observed that on 15 April 2021, the Constitutional\u00a0 Tribunal\u00a0 of\u00a0 Poland\u00a0 delivered\u00a0 a\u00a0 judgment declaring that Article\u00a0 3, paragraph 6\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 Act\u00a0 on\u00a0 the\u00a0 Commissioner\u00a0 for\u00a0 Human\u00a0 Rights\u00a0 of\u00a0 Poland, which provides that the Commissioner will remain in office until the new office-holder is appointed, is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Tribunal also ruled that the existing transitional provision shall cease to apply three\u00a0 months after 15 April 2021, the date when this decision was published in the Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland. In light of this, we are concerned that should\u00a0 a\u00a0 successor\u00a0 not\u00a0 be\u00a0 appointed within\u00a0 this three-month period, the Office\u00a0 of\u00a0 the Commissioner\u00a0 for\u00a0 Human\u00a0 Rights, will\u00a0 have\u00a0 to\u00a0 function\u00a0 without\u00a0 a Commissioner,\u00a0 seriously\u00a0 limiting\u00a0 its\u00a0 effectiveness\u00a0 as\u00a0 an institution and\u00a0 negatively\u00a0 impacting\u00a0 the promotion and protection of human rights in Poland\u201d, says the Statement.<\/p>\n

The organizations call upon the Polish authorities to ensure an orderly transition to a new\u00a0 Commissioner\u00a0 for\u00a0 Human\u00a0 Rights and to\u00a0 provide\u00a0 for continuity, \u00a0ensuring\u00a0 the\u00a0 effective and independent functioning of the institution throughout this process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can read the full Statement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Global and European human rights networks and organizations issued a statement on May 14 2021 in support of the Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights. The Ombudswoman Tena \u0160imonovi\u0107 Einwalter supports the Statement as Chair of European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet), one of the signatories, along with the Global Alliance of National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11746,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11743\/revisions\/11746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}