Justice for Whom? Opportunities and Challenges in the Polish Legal System

By HIA Fellow Clara Kent

How relevant is a legal and political system if it doesn’t even look at the issues facing all of its citizens? The HIA Fellows discussed on June 7th challenges and opportunities for human rights promotion in Poland, and ended with a discussion on the Polish Parliament’s review of (or lack thereof) the civil partnership bill.

We have been learning the history of human rights in Poland linearly, sequentially, as if on a journey. We began with the Second World War and the Holocaust. We discussed the Soviet period and its effects. We talked about the history of the church and the role of the Solidarity movement in 1989. And today we arrived at post-1989, current human rights issues in Poland. However, we did not just survey a few issues. We had the opportunity to learn about many solutions and issues from the people who are committing their lives to these works.

HIA Fellows work on a case study at the Association for Legal Intervention
Photo by Benjamin Overton

We began at an NGO based in Warsaw, the Association for Legal Intervention. There, Katarzyna Wencel introduced us to their work. They exist to help the marginalized and discriminated by providing legal and social aid. They work on a systemic scale, addressing policy and the legal system. But a lot of their success is in their casework, on the ground, as they help people from marginalized groups secure their basic human rights. We had the opportunity to learn about the common challenges that they see their clients face, as well as practice our own problem-solving skills when given real case examples to try and resolve. As a group, we discovered how challenging it can be to negotiate so many different actors - the law may say one thing and mean another, or it may say nothing at all, while everyone involved is protected by the same constitution. We left feeling motivated to understand more. 

HIA Fellows discuss a case study with Katarzyna Wencel

In the afternoon, we were able to hear from University of Warsaw law professor and former Constitutional Tribunal Justice, Professor Mirosław Wyrzykowski, who introduced us to the workings of the Polish Constitution and parliamentary system and their effects on human rights. We looked at the specific case of civil partnerships in Poland. Parliament recently rejected an opportunity to discuss and debate the possibility of providing Poles with civil partnerships, both for opposite-sex and same-sex couples. Because of a strong conservative base in Parliament, the proposition was not even addressed. We discussed with Professor Wyrzykowski the implications of such a decision on the role and nature of a constitutional system, one that is meant to protect the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority. How can a system set up to give weight to the votes and opinions of the majority protect the rights of minorities? What is the responsibility of politicians and lawmakers in regards to ensuring that constitutional protection is provided equally? How are they to guard these rights? And how are we to hold them accountable? Again, we left with more questions than answers, but feeling increasingly prepared to learn more.

Professor Mirosław Wyrzykowski speaks with the HIA Fellows
Photo by Benjamin Overton

Questions like this have continued to circulate in the HIA Poland community. We are all seeking to find ways to make the rights of minorities secure and embraced. This day allowed us and allowed me to see the ways that human rights are defended and secured on both a case by case basis and on a larger, national, governmental scale. Both systems have to be working together to ensure that everyone has the rights to which they are entitled, and neither end of the spectrum is complete without the other.