Human Rights. Poland and the UN declarations on Human Rights

Abstract

Human rights are the foundation of democracy, a democratic society, freedom, justice and peace. Without human rights and awareness of their ownership, people cannot live in dignity. Human rights are the same for all of us, regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, political or other beliefs, social origin, national origin, sexual orientation. There are cases in which human rights may be limited, but only in very specific situations, usually defined in international documents or constitutions of individual countries (e.g. due to the protection of certain values by the state, or due to threats such as war or public security). In 1948, Poland was one of the eight states that abstained from voting on the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Until the transformation of the political system between 1989–1992, the number of international conventions dealing with the issue of human rights, which the Polish state had not ratified, has increased. Along with the democratization of public life in Poland and the accession process to the European Union, successive governments have signed certain conventions, but many important documents remain unratified or unimplemented, including significant conventions regarding the status of stateless persons or related to cluster munitions. This presentation aims at indication of the relation of Polish legislation and basic legal acts to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent conventions aimed at protecting those rights. On the basis of a short comparative analysis, I will try to indicate how important human rights are to Poland nowadays.