The role of Professor Tadeusz Smyczyński as a drafter of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Human rights-the rights of the child / Tadeusz Smyczyński, Marek Andrzejewski. Miskolc ; Budapest : Central European Academic Publishing, 2025, s. 7-28.

The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child 2 has introduced and/or supported many positive changes in the perceptions of children, the way of thinking about children and childhood, children’s relations with the adult world, the duties of the state and its various agencies towards children, and international legal standards for their protection. The first draft of the Convention was prepared by Polish lawyer Prof. Tadeusz Smyczyński; his contribution to this piece of legislation, nonetheless, was later attributed to others, especially those who did not participate in the process as lawyers but as politicians, particularly because he never cared about fame.

The specificity of children’s rights

Human rights-the rights of the child / Tadeusz Smyczyński, Marek Andrzejewski. Miskolc ; Budapest : Central European Academic Publishing, 2025, s. 67-84.

Originally published in Polish: Andrzejewski, M. (2003) ’Fragment książki’ in Andrzejewski, M. Ochrona praw dziecka w rodzinie dysfunkcyjnej (dziecka – rodzina – państwo). Kraków: Kantor Wydawniczy Zakamycze, pp. 37-51.

Rights of the Child : Reflections on the meaning of the idea and its devaluation

Human rights-the rights of the child / Tadeusz Smyczyński, Marek Andrzejewski. Miskolc ; Budapest : Central European Academic Publishing, 2025, s. 86-110.

Originally published in Polish: Andrzejewski, M. (2012) ’Prawa dziecka – rozważania o sensie idei i jej dewaluacji’ in Andrzejewski, M. (ed.) Prawa dziecka. Konteksty prawne i pedagogiczne. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.

Legal Status of a Man in Assisted Reproductive Technology in Polish Law

European Integration Studies 2025, t. 21, nr 1, s. 7–26.

The purpose of this article is to describe the legal status of a man who is a donor of reproductive cells; he might be the husband or cohabiting partner of a woman who is to be a recipient of either these cells or an embryo created from them. The author answers the question of whether this man, in the capacity of a husband, partner, and father, is treated as a subject in medical procedures related to artificial insemination. He stresses that the Polish Law of 25 June 2015, on the treatment of infertility—with its many weaknesses, which, however, are not the subject of this article—makes only married couples and cohabiting heterosexual couples eligible for the assisted reproductive technology treatment. This should be viewed positively as a protection of children’s rights, including the right to live in the family. Special attention has been paid to those provisions that relate to both the informed consent of a man to perform medical procedures and the withdrawal of his consent. In conclusion, the view expressed was that the Polish legislation adequately regulates this issue.

O tzw. współrodzicielstwie (multiparentingu) w kontekście refleksji na temat granic prawa dotyczącego rodziny

Prawo w Działaniu 2025, nr 64, s. 105–122.

In countries where artificial reproduction is allowed not only for married couples and long-standing informal unions, the status of the child’s parents – or rather some status in relation to the child – can and is obtained by various constellations of several people on the basis of a multiparenting or co-parenting agreement (in Poland, the term “multiparenting” has gained ground). The author of this paper criticises the conclusion of such agreements due to overemphasis on the adults’ autonomy and freedom of contract at the expense of marginalising the best interests of children who are, in fact, the subject matter of such agreements. The author opposes the fact that, in matters of personal relationships, relative norms supplant peremptory norms, allowing these relationships to be shaped on the basis of the will of the parties regarding their child. The paper highlights the ideological justification of co-parenting – the supposed need to reduce the number of children to protect the planet because of the carbon footprint and the pursuit of so-called reproductive rights as supposedly human rights.

W krajach, w których sztuczna prokreacja dopuszczalna jest nie tylko dla małżeństw i trwałych związków nieformalnych, status rodziców dziecka, czy też raczej jakiś status względem dziecka, mogą uzyskać i uzyskują rozmaite konstelacje kilku osób na podstawie umowy o wielo- czy też współrodzicielstwie (w Polsce przyjął się termin multiparenting). Autor krytykuje zawieranie takich umów ze względu na przeakcentowanie w nich autonomii i swobody kontraktowania osób dorosłych kosztem zmarginalizowania dobra dziecka będącego w istocie przedmiotem takiej umowy. Sprzeciwia się wypieraniu w sprawach relacji osobistych norm bezwzględnie obowiązujących na rzecz norm względnie obowiązujących, a więc kształtowania tych relacji na podstawie woli stron, której przedmiotem jest dziecko. Podkreśla ideologiczne uzasadnianie współrodzicielstwa rzekomą potrzebą zmniejszania liczby dzieci, by chronić planetę ze względu na ślad węglowy, oraz realizacją tzw. praw reprodukcyjnych, jako rzekomo praw człowieka.