POLAND | Ombudsman Bodnar on "The anatomy of the crime against the Polish judiciary"

Poland’s President recently signed the act on courts. Despite numerous protests the act came into force and started to generate legal, international and social effects.

“When I meet with people from all over Poland, I can see no severe opposition. The area is a complex one, and judges are a kind of elite with which not many people identify. Why all this alarm; nothing is really happening. That’s the common opinion, and my role is to explain that the truth is completely different. That what is happening is a crime against the judiciary system, and that sooner or later its effects will be experienced by everyone”, wrote Commissioner for Human Rights Adam Bodnar, for Magazyn TVN24.

The surveys conducted prior to the act’s signature indicated that most respondents were against it, but the majority was not a strong one. In the survey conducted by Kantar for the Fakty news programme broadcasted by TVN and TVN24, nearly half of the respondents (49%) gave a negative response to the question: “In your opinion, should Andrzej Duda sign the act?”, but 35% gave a positive response.

From his regular contact with citizens, Commissioner Bodnar understands why this is happening and why the dispute about the courts has become so difficult to understand for "an average citizen".

“When I meet with citizens, I can see why there is no severe opposition on the side of the society, or why possible concerns can be effectively weakened by the ruling party”, says Adam Bodnar in the article before he lists the most frequently encountered popular opinions and tries to explain why it can be dangerous to accept those arguments and what solutions can be used in response.

For the full article of Ombudsman Bodnar on “The anatomy of the crime against the Polish judiciary”, please visit the Website of the Commissioner for Human Rights.

Source: Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, Poland