News from Open Republic

2021/05/20

Open Republic Annual General Meeting

The meeting elected the following persons to the Association’s board:

Magdalena Czyż, Marek Gumkowski, Jan Herczyński, Katarzyna Kuczyńska – Koschany, Piotr Jakub Piotrowski, Krzysztof Podemski, Irena Wóycicka and Damian Wutke.

The board then elected the following executive board:

Chair – Marek Gumkowski; Vice-chair-people – Magdalena Czyż, Zofia Wójcicka; Treasurer – Jan Herczyński; Secretary – Damian Wutke; Members – Katarzyna Kuczyńska – Koschany, Piotr Jakub Piotrowski, Krzysztof Podemski.

Antoni Sułek, Natalia Woroszylska and Ludwika Wujec will remain the Audit  Committee members.

Dariusz Stoła was elected a member of the Program Board.

2021/05/17

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

17 May was chosen to commemorate the decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990. The day aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBT rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBT rights work worldwide. LGBTQ+ rights are human rights that still need to be defended.

2021/05/07

Helena Datner on “using public money to falsify history.”

“Tinkering with the historical narrative is nothing new in our country”,– said dr Datner, a historian, sociologist and Jewish community activist, in an interview for the “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” newspaper. In her opinion, the previous Polish governments were also investing in supporting the Polish historical narrative in the context of the Holocaust.

What sets the current administration apart is a more extensive scale of the effort. “The Polish state is always focused on one issue, on the Righteous. It is the only narrative that’s allowed”, she said. “We’re now seeing the public money used to falsify history with a claim that Poles, all Poles were helping Jews [during the Holocuast].

2021/04/23

A deputy fined for homophobic tweets

The Polish parliament’s Ethics Committee has fined a deputy Janusz Korwin-Mikke for tweets claiming that “Christians (as well a Jews and Muslims) must demand that gays be stoned to death”.

2021/04/22

A city councillor: “they will murder us and let the Jews take over”

The Open Republic has asked the Olecko city council to reprimand one of its councillors following statements made by her during an official meeting.

“They [Jews] have never recognised Jesus; they are the chosen ones waiting for their Messiah. Everybody knows who Bill Gates is and all the rest of them. Like Hitler for the Aryan race, they will do everything to take over the world,” – said the councillor, Janina Anuszkiewicz, asking for her remarks not to appear in the minutes.

2021/04/19

Independent Commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Our memory must continue despite the difficulties of our times. This year, once again, we cannot gather physically, but we can still cultivate the memory of the outbreak of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. To remember what happened here. Remember those who fought. Remember those who died. And remember those who kept the memory alive: Marek Edelman, Symcha Rotem (Ratajzer) alias “Kazik”, Jacek Kuroń, Zofia Kuratowska, Anka Kowalska, Lechosław Goździk, Mirosław Sawicki, Noemi Korsan, Chawka Raban, Julia Hartwig, Henryk Wujec, Wiktor Drukier, Marek Czekalski and many others.

For us, as for Marek Edelman, the commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is a matter of memory. We do not want to take part in official commemorations, appropriated by politicians, in celebrations devoured by an empty national celebration. We believe that memory should be a common good, created from the bottom up.

What are we planning for this year?

2021/04/16

Statement of civil society organisations on the takeover of the office of the Ombudsman by the parliamentary majority

As representatives of civil society organisations, we object to the hostile takeover of the office of Ombudsman by the ruling parliamentary majority. We do not accept the de facto settlement of our rights and freedoms by Julia Przyłębska’s politically dependent tribunal, the disregard of the fundamental principles of fair trial, including the independence and impartiality of judges,in its work.

The view taken yesterday by the tribunal is yet another example of the appropriation of the state by the party in power, the undermining of the foundations of democracy and the circumvention of the provisions of the Constitution in accordance with the principle: “when I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care”.

Statement and list of signatures of the organisations

2021/03/31

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.

Poland 2020 Human Rights Report