New law on equal treatment – ‘Act on the Implementation of Certain Provisions of the European Union in the Field of Equal Treatment’ – that entered into force on January 1st, 2011 designates Ombud institution (Commissioner for Civil Rights) as an equality body. However Ombud was not given adequate competences by law and lack resources to fulfil existing competences.
The UN Human Rights Committee reviewed the 6th periodic report on Poland and adopted its Concluding Observations on 26 October 2010, including a number of recommendations regarding counteracting discrimination.
The Sejm - lower house of Parliament -, enacted a new ‘Act on the Implementation of Certain Provisions of the European Union in the Field of Equal Treatment’. It may finally lead to the full implementation of the Directives 2000/43 and 2000/78. However it also raises a number of concerns especially expressed by the civil society. The adoption procedure is not yet finished and the Act will now be debated by the Senate (higher house of the Parliament).
Does “de facto marital relationships” (konkubinat) relates only to partners of different sex or also to partners of same sex? Does denial of the right to succeed to a tenancy after the death of same sex partner constitutes discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation?
Does the lack of factual access to ethics classes in Polish schools constitute a violation by the authorities of the right to cultivate religion beliefs and is it of discriminatory character? Does absence of a mark for “religion/ethics” on school amount to a form of unwarranted stigmatisation of the pupil?
Consecutive version of “the draft law on implementation of certain provisions of European Union in the field of equal treatment” – a consecutive chance for filling the gaps in the implementation of EC directives.
The members of ONR (Obóz Narodowo Radykalny, National-Radical Camp, a right wing organization) were sentenced to six months in prison suspended for three years and the ban to raise hands in the Fascist gesture (“hailing”)
The information contained on this page represents the situation as of 31 December 2009 and is a summary of the country report produced by the country expert from the network. The summary can be downloaded here as well.
After the Second World War Polish society became ethnically homogenous. According to the 2002 national census, 96.74 per cent of the population declared themselves as being of Polish nationality, 1.23 per cent stated that they were members of national and ethnic minorities, while the number of foreigners permanently resident in Poland was approximately 0.1 per cent.
In the field of employment and occupation Polish legislation introduced legal definitions of both direct and indirect discrimination on 1 January 2004 (and improved them in 2008). They are included in the Labour Code and were incorporated due to the process of implementation of EU Directives. Outside the field of employment there are no separate definitions of discrimination.
Claims stemming from an employment relationship can be determined either by a labour court or by a conciliation committee. The possibility of making a claim for compensation was introduced into the Labour Code and came into force on 1 January 2004.
Claims stemming from an employment relationship can be determined either by a labour court or by a conciliation committee. The possibility of making a claim for compensation was introduced into the Labour Code and came into force on 1 January 2004.
In the field of employment any discrimination is forbidden, in particular with regard to concluding and terminating an employment relationship and the terms of employment, promotion and access to vocational training aimed at upgrading professional qualifications. The prohibition of discrimination also applies to all the institutions of the labour market, such as employment agencies and employment counselling as well as training courses for the unemployed.
No institution or body has been officially designated to be the specialised body as required by Directive 2000/43. There is no single “specialised body” which would be able to fulfil all three functions in the sense of Article 13.2 of the Racial Equality Directive. Nevertheless there are institutions in Poland which are of relevance in this context. The first, the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection (Ombudsperson), is the institution which possesses the strongest non-judicial instruments to intervene in cases of discrimination, although it has no power to issue any binding decision.
This initiative is financed by the EC Programme Progress. But the views expressed in this website do not necessarily reflect the official views of the EU institutions.
