The Polish government has refused to publish the court’s decision, saying the judges were not following the very rules they were evaluating.
Advertisement
(Vatican Radio) An worldwide human rights body has warned that if Poland’s recently elected government continues with moves that it claims “crippled” the country’s constitutional court, it will “undermine democracy, human rights and the rule of law”.
However, the government in Warsaw said it would ignore the ruling, refusing to publish it.
The government wants to change the way the court works, but the court says the changes are unconstitutional.
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe is a regional intergovernmental organization of 47 member states that aims to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
The changes include upping from a simple majority of judges to a two-thirds majority the bar for rulings and requiring 13 judges, rather than nine, to be present for the most contentious cases.
He told reporters that “these actions which we observed in the Constitutional Court were actions of a group of judges who did not act on the basis of law and within the law, so they acted unlawfully”.
Various other government measures have caused concern both within Poland and overseas, especially a law reducing the independence of media, which gives the government more influence over public broadcasters. Fears are running high in Europe and the United States that Poland could be on a path similar to that of Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has centralized power and restricted civic liberties in creating what he calls an “illiberal state”.
A government spokesman on Saturday said the ruling could not be published because doing so would make it legally binding.
While the opinion of the rights body is non-binding, it will carry weight at the EU Commission, which has begun a process to monitor the rule of law in Poland that could end up in Warsaw being suspended from voting in the European Union.
Washington has opted for a quieter, less confrontational approach that than of the European Union, whose officials have at times used extreme language – “coup d’etat”, a “Putinization of Poland” – to the annoyance of Polish leaders. The commission is scheduled to deliver its report on Friday in Venice.
The government said Saturday that it still refuses to publish a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal that struck down the legislative amendments passed in December that have blocked the court and plunged the nation into crisis.
Controversial PiS reforms since coming to power previous year have triggered waves of protests.
Advertisement
Bochenek said the commission’s opinion would be sent to parliament so all political sides could seek a resolution.
