Posts for author: Martin Mycielski

In the previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) had been significantly politically compromised. PPO, under the Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro, was the institution which caused the most direct harm to Polish citizens in 2015-2023. It has systemically pursued (often only perceived) political and business opponents, quashed dissent, and silenced critical […]

This study was prepared as a submission to the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report 1. Introduction Since assuming power in October 2023, Poland’s new, Civic Coalition-led government has initiated efforts to restore the independence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which had been compromised under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration and Prosecutor […]

Since February 2024, with dozens of humanitarian missions to Ukraine we’ve delivered millions of Euros worth of aid – both to civilians and Ukraine’s defenders on the front line. Simultaneously we’ve supported thousands of women and children seeking shelter in Poland. Now, finally, we found a way to also help the heroes who lost the […]

Source: euobserver.com Read also: Martin Mycielski for EUobserver: Have the Polish people finally had enough? (November 23, 2021) Europa United Eurochat podcast – Polish Presidential election special with Martin Mycielski (June 23, 2020) Could Polish president Duda’s anti-LGBT rhetoric spell trouble for PiS? (June 19, 2020) Poland’s sham presidential election in a pandemic (March 27, […]

In light of the ongoing discussion on better integration of the work of civil society in the works of national parliaments and international parliamentary assemblies, the Open Dialogue Foundation has been a vocal proponent and advocate for more transparent, organised and fair regulation, benefitting civil society. We believe that the expertise, input and advocacy work […]

Like every year, ODF took an active part in the OSCE’s Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Unlike in 2022 we didn’t just focus the assembly’s attention on rule of law challenges in Poland, but also presented our findings on financial exclusion stemming from the abuse of AML/CFT laws by authoritarian states. The Warsaw Human Dimension Conference […]

Preface Since the Law and Justice (PiS)-led United Right Coalition [Composed of PiS and its two junior partners – Solidarna Polska (United Poland, led by the Justice Minister/Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro) and, until August 2021, Porozumienie Jarosława Gowina (Jarosław Gowin’s Agreement)] took power in 2015, an unprecedented politicisation of the public prosecution has occurred, which has […]

This case study is an extended and updated description of the case of Przemysław Krych, which was originally included in the “Entrepreneurs and Executives” section of the report “Polish Public Prosecutor’s Office: Selected Cases of Malicious Prosecution and Dereliction of Duties since 2015”, published by the Open Dialogue Foundation and the “Themis” Association of Judges in February 2022.

In just three weeks, Ukraine will be celebrating its Easter. For Ukrainians, this is a special holiday – not only the most important one of the year, but also related to honouring the dead. According to the tradition, Ukrainians visit the graves of their loved ones a week after Easter and symbolically share a meal […]

Executive summary On 31 October 2022, a newly created, supposed NGO, the Institute for European Integrity (IEI), published an entry for the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) as part of its “NGO Watchlist.” IEI labelled the Foundation as an organisation with alleged “strong links to individual(s) sanctioned or criminally prosecuted by a European Union, United States […]

During the October 2022 plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ODF had the honour to organise a public hearing under the title “Erosion of the rule of law in Poland: Political abuses of the prosecution office”. The event, held on 13 October in the Council’s Strasbourg headquarters, was hosted by […]

In the weeks of 26 September – 7 October the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) held its 2022 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, serving as a summit, or plenary session, of the OSCE’s human rights institution. The conference was attended by OSCE […]

In the weeks of 26 September – 7 October the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) held its 2022 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, serving as a summit, or plenary session, of the OSCE’s human rights institution. The conference was attended by OSCE […]

In the weeks of 26 September – 7 October the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) held its 2022 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, serving as a summit, or plenary session, of the OSCE’s human rights institution. The conference was attended by OSCE […]

Since the Law and Justice (PiS)-led United Right coalition took power in 2015, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of politicisation of the public prosecution service, which has been transformed into a tool serving political and personal interests of the ruling camp and its members. This resulted in a growing number of politically motivated cases of investigations carried out primarily against those regarded as opponents of the government.