National Human Rights Systems: Poland

Walczuk, Konrad (2026) National Human Rights Systems: Poland. CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW, 7 (1). pp. 459-492. ISSN 2732-0707

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Abstract

Poland has an extensive system of human rights protection. In addition to domestic (internal) regulations, international regulations, including those of the European Union (EU), are also sanctioned. It is worth emphasising that internal Polish law frequently guarantees a wider range of human rights than international law. Thus, this paper will discuss internal regulations and institutions (based on the Polish Constitution, which expresses sovereignty and international subjectivity, also in terms of human rights), with only a brief reference to international law.The discussion of the national human rights system should begin with an indication of the hierarchical position of legal regulations on this issue. This will make it possible to illustrate the system of values shaping this system and indicate the special position of constitutional regulations. It is primarily on the regulations of the Basic Law that the system of guarantees of human and civil freedoms and rights has been formed. As the source of these freedoms and rights, the inherent and inalienable dignity of man has been indicated, which is a clear nod by the legislator to natural law. This further impinges on the following indicated in the study: the internal systematics of freedoms and rights; their guarantee system; the admissibility of restrictions on constitutional human rights and the basic principles governing them (including, for example, the principles of proportionality and legalism).A sort of summary of the analysis is a presentation of the basic measures and institutions of human rights protection, among them: the right to a court of law and the prohibition against closing the judicial route to asserting violated freedoms or rights; the right to compensation for damage that has been caused to the subject of law by the illegal acts of a public authority; the constitutional complaint to the Polish Constitutional Court; the right to apply to the Polish Ombudsman for assistance in protecting one's freedoms or rights violated by public authorities; and the protection provided by the Ombudsman for Children.

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