The Ordo Iuris Institute has been involved in defending professionals: doctors, pharmacists, nurses and midwives, who are committed to practicing their profession in accordance with reliable medical knowledge and their own conscience. We believe that defending the rights of conscience of medical professionals may ensure for all Poles freedom from state interference in this area of human life, which is fundamental for our identity. The Ordo Iuris lawyers provide legal assistance to Professor Bogdan Chazan, whose story has contributed like nothing else to the development of social awareness of the obligation to oppose the statutory lawlessness, including the admissibility of eugenically motivated abortion.
Recognising the need to expand the scope of activities undertaken by the Institute, we are constantly committed to defending freedom of conscience in international forums, intervening and participating in numerous initiatives for religious freedom and freedom of conscience in the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the United Nations.
- According to polls, a majority of Poles support an increased legal availability of prenatal killing than the public has access to at present. This support fluctuates, however, depending on how a poll’s questions are formulated.
- Spanish authorities have banned public prayer, including the recitation of the rosary for the homeland. The decision is in response to mass protests by the population expressing opposition to the amnesty of Catalan separatists.
- States, by introducing legislation criminalising silent prayer, are violating the right to freedom of thought and conscience, which is a fundamental human right.
The Finnish Court of Appeal acquitted former Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, who was accused of hate speech. The charge concerned a post on the 'X' platform (formerly Twitter) containing a passage from Scripture criticising homosexual practices and quotes from a publication issued in 2004 on marriage and sexuality. The criminalisation of speech through legislation on an undefined concept such as 'hate speech' has the potential to restrict the right to freedom of expression and thus poses a serious threat to democracy.
· The District Court in Kraków has dismissed IKEA's appeal against a judgment ordering the reinstatement of Janusz Komenda, an employee dismissed for quoting the Bible.
· In December 2022. District Court in Kraków found that the dismissal was unlawful and ordered Janusz Komenda to be reinstated.
· The Court of Second Instance confirmed that the dismissal was unjustified.
- The District Court for Krakow - Nowa Huta has ordered the reinstatement of Janusz Komenda, an IKEA employee, declaring the termination unlawful.
- Janusz Komenda was fired in 2019 after he quoted passages of Scripture on the company's internal forum and expressed a negative opinion of the LGBT movement's demands.
- The employee's entry was a reaction to the employer's promotion of such ideological content, unrelated to the employment relationship.
· The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen and calling on the Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against him and other detained activists.
· A 90-year-old clergyman named "Hong Kong's conscience" was arrested on May 11, along with four other people from the "612 Humanitarian Relief Fund," established to financially support pro-democracy activists pursued by city officials.
© 2016 ORDO IURIS - Instytut Na Rzecz Kultury Prawnej
