The Universal Protection of Human Rights and Central Europe: Poland

As a founding member of the United Nations, Poland has been present since the very beginning of the organisation. When the UN was established, Poland was one of the first 51 members and was also a state party to the Declaration by United Nations of 1st January 1942, which became the basis of the establishment of the UN.1 To this day, Poland has signed and ratified the most important human rights treaties within the UN system. Currently Poland is state-party to 14 (out of 18) UN human rights treaties. Following their ratification, some of these treaties have became important elements in the Polish legal landscape, while other – despite ratification – did not have an impressive impact on the Polish legal system. Poland undertakes activities deriving from these treaties, including the reporting and implementation of Treaty Bodies’ observations. Within the UN Treaty Body system individuals may bring individual cases against Poland to HRC, CtERD, CtEDAW, CtAT and recently CtED. To this day there have been a total of 12 cases brought before UN Treaty Bodies. The HRC decided on merits in four cases against Poland. The main aim of this article is to examine the Polish input in the universal system of human rights protection. Its purpose is to analyse the impact of the UN system on domestic law and practice by examining the influence of all UN human rights treaties ratified by Poland. The article will also seek to examine problems with the implementation of UN human rights treaty obligations.