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.
Non-governmental organisations (including the Open Dialogue Foundation) and academics specialising in issues related to the rule of law and the protection of human rights, sent an open letter to the President of the European Commission, in which they call for immediate steps to stop the rapidly growing legal chaos in Poland, including prompt submission in the European Court of Justice, of an application for interim measures in Case C-791/19 Commission v Poland, pending before the Court of Justice. The full content of the letter is presented below.
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 Thursday, 12 December 2019, the European Parliament held a conference entitled „The Law and Justice Campaign against the Polish Judiciary”, organised by the Renew Europe group and the Open Dialogue Foundation. The event found reverberation in the Polish media, both pro-government and independent.
With the utmost concern we learned about the decision of the President of the Kraków District Court, Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, dated 14 November 2019, who refused Judge Dariusz Mazur to conduct training for attorneys and undertake any additional activities until the end of 2019.
Soon after ODF’s press conference on 10 October 2019, the CMWP published an appeal on its website, calling for “all journalists and Internet users to act prudently and reliably, and not to get emotional when reporting the causes, course and content of the press conference”.
During a press conference on 11 October 2019, representatives and proxies of ODF presented 20 lawsuits filed against pro-government politicians, journalists, activists and media organisations in connection with a “mass propaganda campaign” they were supposed to launch against the Foundation.
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.
At a press conference today, the Open Dialogue Foundation and its representatives disclosed the names of the media, journalists and politicians and other individuals being sued for spreading lies and violating the personal rights of Lyudmyla Kozlovska, Bartosz Kramek and the Open Dialogue Foundation itself. The most recent order by Warsaw District Court to grant ODF […]
Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film director who spent five years detained in a Russian prison, and Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, who was expelled from Poland by the Law and Justice government, met in Strasburg with French President Emmanuel Macron. An account of the visi
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.
The Open Dialogue Foundation is proud to find itself among civic organisations from across Europe, urging EU leaders to put civic space and civil dialogue high on the EU agenda.
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.
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