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The Open Dialogue Foundation invites you to a Zoom hearing with persecuted Polish judges Beata Morawiec & Dariusz Mazur with additional expertise provided by Prof. Laurent Pech. Who? Judge Beata Morawiec, President of the Themis Judges’ Association. First judge to win a court case against Justice Minister Z. Ziobro for her unlawful removal from office, […]

Our new project, “Democracy fitness: transforming citizens into active stakeholders via exercising democracy”, financed by the State Department through the US Embassy in Warsaw, is aimed at secondary school students in Poland. The aim of the project is to strengthen the understanding of democratic values and processes as well as foster civic participation. Emphasis will be placed on educational activities in the area of the rule of law, including the separation of powers and independence of the judiciary. It is planned to start in September 2020.

Today, on June 9, 2020, the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court is holding a closed hearing regarding lifting the immunity of judge Igor Tuleya. This and other glaring violations of ECJ judgements and EU law have compelled the world’s leading legal scholars to sign a follow-up letter by ODF and Prof. Laurent Pech to the European Commission regarding the deterioration of the rule of law in Poland.

On our initiative, on 7 May 2020, several hours before the scheduled election of candidates for the new president of the Polish Supreme Court, experts, judges, prosecutors and NGOs appealed to its judges to continue the fight for independence from political pressure.

Due to the decision issued by the District Court in Warsaw on March 13, 2020, state broadcaster Polskie Radio S.A. secured a claim on personal rights protection of ODF, Lyudmyla Kozlovska and Bartosz Kramek. As a result, Polskie Radio updated multiple articles in three language versions (Polish, Russian and Ukrainian) with information regarding pending lawsuits, […]

The Open Dialogue Foundation provided inputs to the first annual Rule of Law Report, the European Commission’s latest oversight mechanism and a part of its wider rule of law toolbox. Together with experts and practitioners from Poland – judges Dariusz Mazur and Agnieszka Niklas-Bibik, as well as former public media employee, Piotr Owczarski – we submitted our feedback on the worrisome developments in the Polish justice system and media sector in 2019 and the first half of 2020. The European Commission’s initiative will result in the “Rule of Law Report”, expected to be published in September 2020.

The next few days and weeks will determine the fate of the Supreme Court, a key institution in the Polish legal system that is currently upholding the independence of the judiciary. In 2018 the Supreme Court was attacked by two foreign bodies, the so-called Disciplinary Chamber (ID) and the Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs (IKNiSP). Contrary to their names, they do not consist of independent judges, but of party nominees loyal to the current parliamentary majority and the Law and Justice government.

The Open Dialogue Foundation is one of eight European organisations whose comments and report on the state of the judiciary in EU Member States in the framework of the EU Justice Scoreboard 2020 initiative have been adopted and published by the European Commission. Our study was prepared together with the ‘Themis’ Association of Judges and concerned the state of the Polish justice system.

The 2020 Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), held on 27-31 January 2020 in Strasbourg, was dominated by two topics: the returning of voting rights to Russia (which ODF strongly campaigned against), which was suspended following its annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine, and the worsening situation in regard to the rule of law in Poland.

As is by now tradition for us, we were proud to be present during the 2020 Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, held on 27-31 January 2020 in Strasbourg, France. Our delegation consisted of ODF President Lyudmyla Kozlovska, Kazakhstani activist from the ‘Qaharman’ human rights movement Dana Zhanay and Polish persecuted judge Dominik Czeszkiewicz from the Suwałki District Court.

In light of the ongoing assault on the independence of the judiciary in Poland by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party – and especially the recently-exposed hate campaign against judges and prosecutors, orchestrated by the justice ministry itself – the Renew Europe group and the Open Dialogue Foundation have organised on December 12th, 2019, a European Parliament lunch debate with prosecutors and judges persecuted in Poland.

ODF is proud to have organised a high-level mission to Brussels of the most famous “disobedient” Polish judges & prosecutors – the leading victims of the systemic persecution & defamation of the independent judiciary in the country: judges Waldemar Żurek & Dariusz Mazur and prosecutors Krzysztof Parchimowicz & Ewa Wrzosek.

On 10 October 2019, the Open Dialogue Foundation filed nearly twenty of lawsuits against politicians representing the Law and Justice party and their Public Relations representatives. All these claims were presented by the ODF yesterday at a press conference.

Due to the intensification of attacks on judges and prosecutors belonging to the Association of Polish Independent Prosecutors, Lex Super Omnia, we held a discussion on their current situation on 26 September 2019.

Judges Waldemar Żurek, Piotr Gąciarek and Dariusz Mazur, as well as prosecutor Krzysztof Parchimowicz, will participate in the event hosted by the Open Dialogue Foundation on 26 September, 2019, as part of OSCE’s conference on human rights.