The report contains a crushing critic of the Hungarian asylum system, which is organized so as to “systematically reject all asylum applications”. The report also reads about the “abuse of violence” by the police against foreigners. Mijatović calls on Hungary to suspend its regulations introduced in connection with the migration crisis, which are currently not justified, because in 2018 only 671 asylum applications were filed in Hungary (in 2015 a wire-topped fence appeared on the southern border of the country with Serbia wire).

Commissioner Mijatović also alarms that the law in Hungary “stigmatizes and criminalizes” the activities of NGOs. In response to the Mijatović report, the Hungarian government has assured that the country “implements all international obligations regarding the protection of the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers.”In addition, Hungarian journalists have not pointed out for some time that some politically sensitive issues are absent from news sites of state TV channels and press agencies. Publishers working in the state media got a list of sensitive topics and any attempt to address them requires sending a sketch of the material to superiors.The heads of state-owned Hungarian media also banned quoting reports from leading human rights organizations.

Hungary is currently subject to the EU’s Seventh Article procedure, which is launched when the fundamental values ​​of the EU are seen as being threatened by the actions of one of the member countries. The European Parliament launched this procedure in 2018, citing media freedom as one of the main concerns. The list of policy topics requiring special pre-publication approval includes “migration, terror in Europe, Brussels, church issues” and parliamentary, presidential and local government elections in the EU (this category includes Europe and some neighboring countries).In practice, what appears in the media is significantly influenced by another body – the Media Services Support and Management Fund (MTVA). This structure, for lack of transparency, is criticized by international organizations analyzing media order in various countries.

On 30th March 2020, the Hungarian Parliament adopted a so-called “coronavirus law”, by claiming that efficiently combating the coronavirus pandemic would require extraordinary measures and the ability to make rapid decisions, should that become necessary. The new law significantly expanded the government’s power during the so-called state of danger regime that was introduced on 11 March in response to the coronavirus situation. State of danger is a special form of extraordinary legal regime which can be only be introduced and withdrawn by the government. While a state of danger is in force, the government can rule by decree and does not need parliamentary approval. It is important to note, however, that at present it cannot yet be known with absolute certainty, whether and how the Hungarian government will use the extra powers granted by the coronavirus law.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has warned that emergency measures taken by EU countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic must be “limited”. Her warning comes after Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban took on sweeping powers, allowing the Hungarian government to rule by decree.

Informations gathered by

Artur Wierzbicki

President

FBE Human Rights Commission

Artykuł HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – HUNGARY, HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.

The emergence of spontaneous grassroots activism and effective, widespread bottom-up initiatives questions the more institutionalised operational models of NGOs, INGOs and other umbrella organisations. But is it possible to initiate lasting changes in the socio-political world without relying on formal self-organised structures? How can the spontaneous mobilisation of citizens be relied on by more institutionalised NGOs? Do the grassroots organisations recognize themselves in the more corporatist NGOs? Are the global networks and institutionalised NGOs inclusive and welcoming enough to marginalised groups and individuals, local and smaller citizen initiatives? Are the goals of both the same?

A closing civic space impacts all forms of independent civil society and appears to be one of the symptoms of the “ill-democracy”. A rapidly changing political, economic, technologic and social landscape impacts quite significantly the civil society sector, and especially its sustainability. Faced with these changes, civil society organisations work to strengthen their organisational resilience, financial viability and capacities for action. They must also constantly look for new solutions to increase their capacities, seek out visibility and partnerships, adapt their engagement with citizens and advocacy with policymakers as well as new means of engaging with their own constituencyand membership.

World NGO Day is a global initiative aiming to:

• highlight the efforts and achievements of NGOs from all sectors,
• offer the opportunity for people to understand more clearly what NGOs are doing for society at a local, national and international level and,
• provide a platform for NGOs to discuss the issues that affect their work and share their knowledge and experience with one another.

Artur Wierzbicki President Human Rights Commission FBE

Artykuł World NGO Day, Brussels, February 28, 2020 “From the Past to the Future: A Living Civic Space for a Living Democracy” pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.

The competition was held in the Hans Litten House, the offices of the Rechtsanwaltkammer (RAK). Nezih Ulkekul of the RAK gave a warm and well received welcome, and thanks were given to the representatives of the RAK from the President of the Human Rights commission, Artur Wierzbicki.

The 18 candidates from 12 bar associations presented legal argument in English to a panel of 5 judges. President of the FBE Human Rights Commission, Artur Wierzbicki presided over the panel as President, and Monique Stengel, from Paris and FBE Treasurer represented the Presidency of the FBE, Marc Wesser, Vice President of the Commission and member of the Berlin Bar, Bedia Ayşegül Tansen of the Istanbul Bar and Professor Sara Chandler QC (Hon) Past President of the FBE, joined Mr Wierzbicki on the panel.

The topic for the competition was “Freedom of Speech”. The 18 semi-finalists presented well prepared speeches which were varied in their approach to the legal argument as well in their oratory style. It was a hard task for the panel to choose four to be the finalists on Day Two. The topic for day two “The criminalisation of those who facilitate the travel of refugees is against human rights” was treated in debate style, with two for and two against. In each team one candidate presented and the second speaker rebutted. The candidates had only 2 hours to research and prepare their debate speeches. The judges put a question to all of them to test their spontaneous responses, and heard from the four candidates what each would do to draft legislation in respect of human trafficking.

The result was:

1st: Fatima Oraibi from Antwerp;

2nd: Sophie Lucas from Westminster & Holborn;

3rd: Ronald Elek, from Cluj;

4th: Julide Hancer from Istanbul.

Fatima Oraibi will attend the FBE Congress in Lisbon 24 -26 October to attend the Human Rights Commission and receive her prize and recognition from the General Assembly. She will receive a further Award from the Krakow Bar in April in memory of Mr MarianAnczyk, of the Krakow Bar and last President of the Grandes Barreaux d’ Europe, and co-founder with Mr Eugenio Guy Montalvo of the FBE, Mr Eugenio Guy, former Dean of the Barcelona Bar was the first President of the FBE in 1992.

The other semi-finalists were:

Natalia Wachowiak from Poznan; Agnieszka Całka from Warsaw; Bérénice Dago- Pavlopoulos from Lyon; Trinidad Alonso from Madrid; Simranjit Digpal from South London Law Society; Andrea Lazzaro from Milan; Oriana Maria Elajalde Martins from Bilbao; Benjamin Pass from Westminster & Holborn; Paola Chamorros Cuenca from Madrid; Pawel Matyja from Katowice; Zuzanna Morawska-Zakroczymka from Warsaw; Cristina Prunea Anda from Cluj; Shira Notrika from South London Law Society; Martyna Kasperska from Warsaw.

All participants were GREAT !
The FBE IIIrd Human Rights Oratory Competition for young lawyers and law students in 2020 is planned in Bilbao/Spain.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

Artykuł FBE II International Human Rights Oratory Competition for young lawyers and law students pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.

This event has been honored by many personages. Our Federation (FBE) was represented by the President of the Federation Mr Michele Lucherini who gave a welcome speech.

The discussion panel about Colombian facts was led by the excellent Prof. Sara Chandler. The FBE Human Rights Commission was represented by its President Mr Artur Wierzbicki and its members Mr Donovan Lindsay and Mr Nardy Desloover.

The FBE participated in the 6th delegation of jurists to Colombia with members from Italy and the UK.

The Federation supports the peace process and recognises that this is a hugely important period when the peace process is threatened by those who do not respect the rule of law, nor the defence of human rights. After more than 50 years of conflict we welcomed the Peace Agreement and over the last two years the process that began to develop.

The FBE has supported human rights lawyers in Colombia since 2006 when the Congress of the FBE was addressed by human rights lawyer Reinaldo Villalba Vargas.

The FBE Human Rights Commission has a long term programme of support for human rights defenders who are at risk, and face daily threats, attacks and assassination.

The International Caravana travelled to Colombia in September 2018. 20 experts from six countries focused their visit on the impact that the peace process has had on the work of human rights lawyers and the dynamics of the conflict. The Caravana travelled to six regions, meeting with lawyers, judges, human rights defenders, victims, and state representatives, among others.

Delegates observed that violence against human rights defenders and social movements has escalated and that there has been a worrying paradigm shift in relation to the characteristics of threats and how threats are acted upon, and a proliferation and re-emergence of illegal armed groups.

Human rights lawyers in Colombia are at heightened risk because of their work seeking accountability and defending communities’ fundamental rights. Delegates heard reports of repeated aggressions against them: threats to their lives and their families; break-ins and thefts of sensitive information; disciplinary complaints filed to hinder lawyers’ work; and stigmatisation by public officials unduly linking lawyers to their clients or making accusations of their belonging to illegal armed groups.

Human rights defenders and lawyers also face obstacles when seeking timely and appropriate protection from the state. The state’s approach to protection tends to be reactive rather than preventive and lacks understanding of the context in which lawyers work and how to take specific circumstances of geography, culture, and gender into account when allocating protection measures.

It would be far removed from reality to conclude that Colombia is in a period of post-conflict, let alone at peace.

The International Caravana first travelled to Colombia on the invitation of Colombian human rights lawyers in 2008. Our sixth delegation heralded the Caravana’s tenth anniversary of international professional solidarity in defence of human rights, justice, and rule of law.

A steady constant these past ten years is that lawyers, human rights defenders, and social leaders continue to be threatened and killed for seeking justice and defending marginalised communities. Since the signing of the Peace Agreement in November 2016, hundreds of human rights defenders have been assassinated and the UN has called for decisive action to stem the tide of violence enveloping many regions.

Colombian’s official state Ombudsman has reported that a human rights defender is killed every three days. The country is highly polarised. In 2018, two years after the historic signing of the Peace Agreement between the state and the FARC, the Caravana joined a call for justice, truth, reconciliation and non-repetition. As the international community and colleagues in the legal profession around the world, we ask that the Peace Agreement be more than just paper and that it lead to transformation and transition for Colombia and security and peace for its lawyers, human rights defenders and citizens; a peace which all Colombians deserve.

PARTICIPANTS:

Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, México:

Massimiliano Buriassi, Francesco Christian Di Nardo, Valeria Verdolini, Wout Albers, Ron Rosenhart, Carles McCragh Pujà, Gemma Sunyer, Fabian Dreher, Rebecca Chalk, Sara Chandler QC (Hon), Jeffrey Forrest, Charlotte Gill, James Lupton, Christabel McCooey, Natasha Morgan, Lee Pearman, Rachel Rushby, Louise Williams, Sue Willman

Artur Wierzbicki

President of the Human Rights Commission FBE

Artykuł COLOMBIAN CARAVANA REPORT 2018 pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.

The Day of the Endangered Lawyer on January 24, 2019 is a day on which we call for the attention for lawyers all over the world who are facing harassment, threats, persecution or even torture and therefore the work of those Colleagues is made increasingly difficult.

We could help our Colleagues in Turkey that day by demonstrating our support in front of Turkish Embassies all over Europe as well as taking part in many panels/discussions. One of panel was organized by Amnesty International and DAV in Berlin/Germany in Berlin Bar on January 24, 2019 under the tittle :”Turkish cases before the ECtHR”.

On behalf of FBE Human Rights Commission and OIRP Poznan Human Rights Commission I celebrated that day with my German Colleagues-Lawyers, there. At 2.00 p.m. there was also a opportunity to take part in the peace demonstration in front of Turkish Embassy in Berlin.

We should realize that since the state of emergency in Turkey was declared in 2016, basing on public datas, 1,500 Turkish lawyers have been prosecuted and around 600 arrested. Around 3,000 judges and prosecutors are said to have lost their posts. In addition to journalists and opposition politicians, the lawyers are in the sights.

Mr Stefan von Raumer (Human Rights Committee DAV Berlin) – a lawyer specialized in international human rights law, co-editor of an ECHR commentary led the mentioning panel, I was part.

The panelist Mr Ümit Kılınç (human rights lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg) said at the meeting that one could roughly make out three groups among the threatened lawyers. The danger attaches to the clients who are represented. Affected are clients from politically left circles (1), Kurdish clients (2) and followers of the Gülen movement (3).

He gave the lever for prosecution of lawyers in Turkey as Article 301 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes the public downsizing of the Turkish nation, state or government, as well as

judicial bodies. He also stressed that there is little trust among the lawyers in Turkey in the justice system. The last hope is still the Turkish Constitutional Court, but also threatens to be ignored in important decisions by the courts of the courts simply (there was an open showdown in early 2018 because a criminal court had refused to release two journalists).

In his opinion as in many other, the ECtHR was a great hope for number of people, including lawyers in Turkey – but their confidence is dwindling. The ECtHR sees tens of thousands of cases coming from Turkey and has so far regularly rejected complaints, and instead referred the complainants to the exhaustion of national remedies.

Mr Stefan von Raumer explained he believes that the rigorous handling of the Court eligibility requirement has led to a permanent overburdening of the Human Rights Court since 2011. He also stressed that the ECtHR would only be prepared to break its stringent admissibility requirements if a complaint authority in a state exists only theoretically but not practically (for example, the ECtHR had accepted this for cases from Serbia, even though there was a complaint authority, but it did not apply to certain legal acts).

In the opinion of many, Turkey must restore the rule of law, release still-detained magistrates and journalists, and lawyers, restore the rights of teachers and magistrates ( judges and prosecutors) who have resigned from July 2016, restore freedom of press and information, end the state of emergency and fully implement the European Convention on Human Rights.

LET’S STAY TOGETHER !

Artur Wierzbicki

President of Human Rights Commission, FBE President of Human Rights Commission, OIRP Poznan

Artykuł Turkish cases before the ECtHR pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.

The theme of the 2018 colloquium was “Democracy in the EU”.
The Opening Speech at the Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights in Brussels/Belgium was done by Mr Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission.
In some words he presented the main subject as a fundamental right and the rule of law, one of three pillars which shall forever anchor the European Union. He wished the participants great discussions to highlight the role of political parties, civil society, organizations, platforms and other stakeholders in mobilizing citizens. I was one of them .

The Colloquium aimed to reaffirm that Democracy is a central value common to the European Union and all its Member States, and looked at how to renew democratic engagement within the European Union and the European societies. This debate was timely also in the context of the upcoming European elections and on the

occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

At the Colloquium as well as at the panels and parallel sessions we all worked together to identify avenues to foster free, open and healthy democratic participation in an era of growing low turnout in elections, populism, digitalisation and threats to civil society.

There were a variety of panels :

•  Resilient and inclusive democracy in Europe
• A free and strong civil society for a vibrant democracy
• Free and fair elections and an informed and pluralistic democratic debate. Of course among participants there was also a great time to discuss one to one some of those topics.

I do recommend to everyone if it would be possible to take part in the next 2019 Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights.

Artur Wierzbicki
President
FBE Human Rights Commission

Artykuł FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.

Under this slogan, the European Bars Federation / Strasbourg (FBE) and the District Chamber of Legal Advisors / Poznań (OIRP) organized on the 29 and 30 June 2018 at the headquarters of OIRP in Poznań / Poland, the I International Young Lawyers’ and Law Students’ Human Rights Oratory Competition. The organizers, through this event, invited young lawyers and law students (age up to 30 years of age) to disseminate the values of the Declaration of Human Rights.

Many young lawyers, law students, responded to our invitation addressed to them. After the preliminaries, 9 semi-finalists from such countries as The United Kingdom, Spain, Serbia and Poland were invited to participate in the Competition. The theme of the oral presentation of each of the semi-finalists was the same and was based on the Declaration of Human Rights – well known to everyone.

The participants of the competition were: Mr. Christopher Banks (London), Mrs. Paola Cuenca Chamorro (Madrid), Mr. Aleksa Filipov (Vojvodina), Mrs. Klaudia Gozdz (London), Mrs. Nekane Legorburu (Bilbao), Mrs. Paola Moctezuma (Madrid), Mrs Elizabeth Smith (London), Mr. Rafał Sokół (Warsaw), Mr. Darrieux Raposo Roi (Bilbao).

The speeches of individual participants during the two days of the contest struggle were subject to a broad but objective assessment of the international jury composed of: Artur Wierzbicki, (Poznań) – Jury President, Professor Sara Chandler (London) – Jury Member, Mrs. Monique Stengel (Paris) – Jury Member, Mr. Marc Wesser (Berlin) – Jury Member.

On the first day of the Competition, the final four were selected. On the second day, with a slightly changed formula of the speeches, as a result of the Jury’s deliberatin and its unanimity, the winning four were selected:

1. Mr. CHRISTOPHER BANKS (London) – 1st place
2. Mr. RAFAŁ SOKÓŁ (Warsaw) – 2nd place
3. Ms. PAOLA CUENCA CHAMORRO (Madrid) and Mr. ALEKSA FILIPOV (Vojvodina) – 3rd place ex aequo

The competition was an excellent opportunity to practice oratory skills of young lawyers and law students as well as exchange experiences in this group. The next, second edition is planned for next year.

Artur Wierzbicki,
President of FBE Human Rights Commission FBE

Artykuł FBE / OIRP Poznań Ist International Young Lawyers’ and Law Students’ Human Rights Oratory Competition, Poznań 2018 pochodzi z serwisu Kancelaria Radcy Prawnego Artur Wierzbicki Radca Prawny.