Zapewnienie dostępu do edukacji seksualnej jako element realizacji praw człowieka

Gdańskie Studia Prawnicze 2025, nr 1 (66), s. 155–163.

Przedmiotem refleksji w niniejszym artykule jest prawo do swobodnego, pokojowego zgromadzania się w Międzynarodowym Pakcie Praw Osobistych i Politycznych. Idea społeczeństwa demokratycznego zakłada poszanowaaCelem artykułu jest wykazanie, że zapewnienie przez państwa edukacji seksualnej stanowi element realizacji praw człowieka, a także wskazanie, jakie cele ochrony praw człowieka są realizowane przez edukację seksualną oraz jakie obowiązki spoczywają na państwach w tym zakresie. Rozważania zostały osadzone w trzech perspektywach wynikających z nurtów ochrony praw człowieka, w których zawarto odpowiednie regulacje prawne. Są to: perspektywa przeciwdziałania dyskryminacji i przemocy ze względu na płeć, perspektywa praw dziecka oraz perspektywa praw osób z niepełnosprawnościami.nie pluralizmu jako istotnego elementu jego funkcjonowania. Zgromadzenia, jako instytucje typu obywatelskiego, stanowią istotny składnik demokratycznego państwa prawnego. Prawo do swobodnego, pokojowego zgromadzania się zawarte w art. 21 Paktu należy do światowego kanonu praw człowieka, a jego źródłem jest osobowa godność człowieka. Godność osobowa przysługuje każdej jednostce, zaś prawa człowieka co do zasady mają charakter indywidualny, natomiast komponent kolektywności wyraża się w konieczności realizacji tego prawa w grupie. Prawo to wyposażone w przymiot swobodności wymaga nie tylko umożliwienia zaistnienia tej formy zbiorowości ludzkiej, ale także dobrowolnego przyłączenia się do zgromadzenia oraz rezygnacji i odłączenia od kolektywu. Wraz z rozwojem technologicznym i postępem cywilizacyjnym prawo człowieka do swobodnego, pokojowego zgromadzania się może być realizowane za pomocą Internetu, gdzie osoby mogą w sposób kolektywny prezentować swoje poglądy. Pomimo tego, że Internet jest podstawowym medium do budowania społeczeństwa obywatelskiego, standardy uniwersalne dotyczące swobodnego, pokojowego zgromadzania się nie przystają do realiów jego wykonywania w Internecie.

This article demonstrates that the provision of sex education by states is an element of the implementation of human rights; it indicates what goals of human rights protection are achieved by sex education and what obligations rest on states in this respect. The discussion adopts three perspectives resulting from trends in the protection of human rights. These are: the perspective of counteracting gender-based discrimination and violence, the perspective of children’s rights, and the perspective of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level in Poland

Współautorstwo: Baranowska, Grażyna; Grygiel-Zasada, Joanna; Szoszkiewicz, Łukasz

The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level : Twenty Years On / edited by Christof Heyns, Frans Jacobus Viljoen, and Rachel Murray. – Boston ; Leiden : Brill, 2024., s. 823–898.

As a founding member of the UN, Poland has for several decades been engaged with the treaty body system. It has accepted as binding seven of the nine core human rights treaties (cerd, ccpr, cescr, cedaw, crc, cat and crpd). The impact of these treaties and their monitoring bodies on Polish law and policies has been related to the political circumstances shaping the state’s attitude to human rights in general. Under the Communist regime, although it ratified UN treaties, Poland did so mostly for propaganda reasons, without protecting individual rights (especially civil and political rights) in practice. As a result of the democratic transition initiated in 1989, much effort was undertaken to build democratic institutions and to incorporate human rights within the state’s structure. The Constitution, which includes a comprehensive human rights catalogue, was adopted in 1997, and independent courts were established. Most provisions of UN human rights treaties have been reflected in Polish law, but a direct impact is barely visible. Aspirations to join the CoE and the EU and implementation of the regional standards certainly played the major role for advancement of human rights in Poland, whereas the UN system was relegated to a secondary role. After democratic transition, while securing political and economic stability, Poland had the chance to focus on implementing international human rights obligations. This became a missed opportunity, since no general institutional framework was established, nor any strategy to implement UN human rights treaties and the recommendations of their monitoring bodies. This situation may be attributable, at least to some extent, to the nature of the UN human rights system, based as it is on voluntary cooperation and dialogue with the state parties, without a robust enforcement mechanism. Besides this, subsequent Polish governments, regardless of the political parties in power, evaded responsibility for violations in individual cases by denying the ratification to op-crpd, op-cescr and op-crc. The impact on law, the judiciary and politics is not related to the amount of time that a given treaty has been in force in relation to Poland or to any reservations that were entered. For instance, crc and crpd have been encumbered with reservations, but have had a stronger impact than prior and fully-accepted cerd and cedaw. In comparison to other treaties, crc and crpd are fairly visible in law and practice, but for different reasons. In the case of crc, Polish ‘authorship’ of this treaty has been regularly and eagerly invoked in parliamentary debates, albeit without more substantive references to its norms. Besides being addressed in a token manner, crc has also been misused to restrict access to reproductive rights. As for crpd, it became part of Polish law thanks to the successful mobilisation of numerous organisations of persons with disabilities. It has frequently been used in litigation before domestic courts. In contrast to other treaties, an institutional mechanism (albeit with many imperfections) has been established for implementation, which could arise from the treaty provision that directly imposes such an obligation on states. Another specific example is cescr, the implementation of which remains limited due to the ‘programmatic’ interpretation of the economic, social and cultural rights by the executive and judiciary in Poland. These are but some of the noted peculiarities. Certainly, UN human rights treaties play an important role for other actors, in particular the nhri and ngos. This can be observed through the instances of active engagement in the reporting process, including a growing number of submissions to the Committees. Treaties and recommendations of the treaty bodies are also employed in advocacy activities. It may be expected that in case human rights in Poland continue backsliding, as has been the case since the post-2015 constitutional breakdown, their significance for the human rights movement in Poland will increase.

Proving Domestic Violence as Gender Structural Discrimination before the European Court of Human Rights

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 2024, t. 37, nr 6, s. 1725-1737.

Since Opuz v. Turkey (2009), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered over a dozen judgments in which it examined domestic violence through the prism of gender-based discrimination. Apart from the individual circumstances of the cases, the Court considered the general approach to domestic violence in the defendant states, searching for a large-scale structural gender bias. Hence, although the Court has not directly referred to the notion of “structural discrimination” in relation to domestic violence, it engaged in unveiling this problem within the state parties. Building on the case law of the Court, the article presents and systemizes information that may prove structural gender discrimination in domestic violence cases. It navigates potential applicants through the Court’s interpretation and indicates arguments and sources that may support their claims. In particular, it discusses what kind of data and information may demonstrate the general, discriminatory attitude of the authorities towards domestic violence and what sources the applicants may use while seeking the evidence.

The Istanbul Convention in Poland : Between the “war on gender” and legal reform

International Law and Violence Against Women : Europe and the Istanbul Convention / J. Niemi, L. Peroni, V. Stoyanova (eds.) – Abingdon: Routledge, 2020, s. 259-276.

Poland ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2015 after a heated public and political debate that focused on provisions of the Convention stipulating State Parties’ obligations regarding the change of cultural patterns and gender stereotyping. Thereby, the Istanbul Convention became one of the key elements of the so-called “war on gender” between conservative and liberal movements. Other legal implications of the Polish accession remained overshadowed. Four years later, in the middle of the backlash against gender equality, human rights and democracy in Poland, the situation remains unchanged, if not worse. Endangered by the risk of withdrawal, the Convention is still a subject of ideological rather than of substantive discussion. The chapter examines to what extent, despite these unfavourable circumstances, the Convention has been a tool of real changes in Polish law and practice, particularly with regard to sexual and domestic violence.

Stanowisko Komitetu Praw Człowieka ONZ w sprawie aborcji

Kobieta-ciąża-zarodek-dziecko : prawne aspekty przerywania ciąży / redakcja naukowa Magdalena Grzyb, Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska. Kraków : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2023, s. 35-58.