Commissioner for Human Rights

The International Human Rights Day was celebrated in Poland in the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw together with the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Polish Human Rights Defender.

During the meeting the annual Paweł Włodkowic Award was presented to Barłomiej Skrzyński, a well-known activist and journalist from Lower Silesia, the Wrocław Spokesman for the Disabled. The award is granted to voice the Human Rights Defender's approval for defending the truth and core values even against the attitudes and beliefs held by the majority.

The gala was attended by former human rights defenders and representatives of supreme state and judicial authorities.

The International Human Rights Day is celebrated on the anniversary of signing by the United Nations in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which became a basic source of international acts aimed at human rights protection.
 

Office of the Ombudsman - Information and statistics data (1988 – 2013)

The Human Rights Defender considers cases concerning violations of freedom and civil rights by the public authorities and organisations and institutions obliged to observe these rights.

Since the inception of the Office, in the years 1988 to 2012, the Human Rights Defender has received 1,282,175 applications in total (about 50 thousand per year, on average).

Over 25 years of activity, the Defender has referred to the Constitutional Tribunal 408 requests to declare the non-compliance of the provisions with the Constitution.

In 178 cases, the Defender joined constitutional complaints of other persons and institutions.

Using a wide range of available remedies, since 2000 the Defender has taken up 6,996 cases on his own initiative, i.e. “ex officio”.

From 1988 to October 2013, the Defender, in cases taken up “ex officio” has made 2040 so-called general applications to other public institutions, i.e., comments, opinions and postulates indicating the need to amend law or the way of its functioning in practice.

In the years 1988-2013, the Office of the Human Rights Defender has seen 110,172 customers.

Also, 296 710 pieces of legal information were provided by phone.