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.
On 9 December 2013 Court of Appeals in Warsaw upheld a District Court judgment from 14th January refusing far-left politicians’ claims. They blamed the cross hanging in the plenary hall of Sejm (lower chamber of the Polish Parliament) to be an infringement of the freedom of religion and having an offensive character for them as for atheists. According to the Court, presence of religious symbols in public square e.g. in Sejm does not infringe freedom of religion neither may be considered as a personal offence.
During the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting organised by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Ordo Juris Law Centre has organized on 30th September a meeting on the current threats to freedom of speech in Poland.
The main topic of discussion was the amendment to the Polish anti-discrimination law. The new anti-discrimination bill, wrongly presented as proper fulfillment of EU antidiscrimination directives, will seriously diminish freedom of speech in Poland.
© 2016 ORDO IURIS - Instytut Na Rzecz Kultury Prawnej
