The increasingly autocratic tendencies observed in Poland and Hungary during the COVID-19 crisis have alarmed the EU. With street protests currently banned, human rights activists fear that the pandemic will be used by national conservative governments to consolidate their power and undermine democracy and human rights.
The human rights of women and children in Poland are at risk. The government is exploiting the fact that due to social distancing restrictions women are unable to protest against a barbaric legislation which was passed in its first reading in Sejm
When the speaker of the National Assembly can call homosexual people secondary citizens without any kind of regret, what message does that deliver? There are people who are afraid to take the hand of their beloved in public because of the fear of being harassed.
AI and robotics are termed “disruptive technologies”, which sounds somewhat dangerous and fraught with risk. But according to the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, disruptive technologies are simply “innovations which replace a successful, existing technology, product or service or oust it from the market”.
The tendencies towards greater intrusion into people’s privacy were visible well before 9/11 and can be imagined even without the elements of its influence. The transition to e-prescriptions, online banking and voting – these are daily routines in Estonia and will be rather sooner than later in other parts of the Western world as well.
The debate on LGBT rights in Poland is not a red herring. It is a question of whether gays and lesbians have the same human rights as the rest of Polish society. It’s the question that demands an answer from liberal parties – tells Liberte! Renata Kim, a Newsweek Polska editor.
The government in Warsaw is considered to be one of the most conservative in the EU. In the country with practically no regulations for LGBT+ community, Law and Justice – the ruling party – manages to find the way to limit their rights even further.
“As nationalism, authoritarianism, and populism strengthen in many countries around the world, it is becoming more important than ever to measure human freedom and the central role it plays in human progress”, said Vasquez. “The declining performance of the United States, once considered the bastion of liberty, is worrisome”.
Let us not divide the world into either black or white, male or female. Polish parliament is not made up only out of men, the law instating ban on abortion is not only about gagging women. It is first and foremost aimed at limiting the rights of the entire civic society, it concerns and affects not only women but all of us.
On June 15, 2016 representatives of liberal parties and think-tanks gathered in Warsaw for Ralf Rahrendorf Roundtable on Constitutional Struggle in Central Europe to discuss how political parties in Central Europe tried (and are still trying) to limit constitutional courts’ position.
