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.
· The European Court of Human Rights upheld the complaint of a converted Muslim man against Christianity whom Switzerland wanted to deport back to Pakistan.
· The Swiss authorities took the view that the persecution of Christians in Pakistan was not serious enough to endanger the applicant's life and freedom in the event of his return.
· The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a complaint by left-wing activists who had sought the removal of provisions in the Irish constitution requiring a person about to assume the office of president, or member of the Council of State, to take the oath with reference to God.
· The complainants, who claim to be non-believers, argued that such an obligation violates their freedom of conscience and religion.
• Ján Orosch, Archbishop of Trnava in Slovakia, expressed his support for Rev. Prof.
The European Commission intends to take action against freedom of speech. The EC initiative would incorporate the so-called ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crimes’ in the catalogue of ‘EU crimes’. This means that they would be included in Article 83 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and, in this way, behaviours covered by these terms would be inevitably considered crimes by all EU Member States.
The Chancellery of the Prime Minister responded to the appeal of the Ordo Iuris Institute and Polish Journalist Association on fighting censorship on the Internet. The petition and report on this issue were submitted to the Chancellery in January this year.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has published its annual report, which shows that the number of religious hate crimes continues to increase. Christians are their target in all of the OSCE member states. It is shaped, amongst others, by the political and media marginalisation of this social group or presenting its detrimental image.
© 2016 ORDO IURIS - Instytut Na Rzecz Kultury Prawnej
