This year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child by Poland. On this occasion, the Ordo Iuris Institute and the Faculty of Family Studies at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw organised the scientific conference: ‘Family, children's rights and their protection on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child’. The event was attended by many experts from different fields, representing national and international research centres.
Professor Tadeusz Smyczyński, the initiator of work on the convention, addressed a letter to the participants of the conference. He expressed his hope that the document would continue to help effectively protect children's rights. The event was attended by speakers from sixteen academic centres, including six from abroad: USA, Hungary, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia. Those who spoke during the conference included the former Consul for the Republic of Poland in Norway – Sławomir Kowalski (PhD), Professor Marek Andrzejewski, Grégor Puppinck (PhD), Dragan Dakić (PhD), Rev. Professor Władysław Majkowski, Justyna Melonowska (PhD), Professor Przemysław Czarnek, Błażej Kmieciak (PhD), attorney Jerzy Kwaśniewski and Tymoteusz Zych (PhD).
The conference included a discussion on the subject of the rights of children from migrant families to preserve their identity. These rights are sometimes violated by government institutions in Scandinavian countries. The speakers also discussed how local governments should protect the family, including the Local Government Charter of the Rights of the Family. Also presented was how the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees the protection of the rights of unborn children.
The conference was held under the patronage of the Rector of UKSW, the Ombudsman for Children, the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy, the Minister of National Education and the Ministries of: Foreign Affairs, Science and Higher Education and the delegate of the Polish Episcopal Conference for pastoral ministry of the Polish emigration, Bishop Wiesław Lechowicz.
“It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. On one hand, it is a signpost towards proper relations between adults and children that some have yet to discover. On the other hand, it is a valuable document that draws attention to the importance of spheres and areas which guarantee the protection of children’s rights. This includes the right to special care, attention and ‘appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth’ - which the Preamble of the Convention underlines,” emphasised Błażej Kmieciak, PhD, Director of the Bioethics Centre of the Ordo Iuris Institute.
The values which form the basis for law have a profound impact on modern Europe. This was the topic of the House on the Rock “Axiology of Law for the Europe of Tomorrow” Conference, which saw many prominent researchers engage in discussion in Rome. The event was organised by the Ordo Iuris Institute and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Many Internet users face the problem of censorship in social media. This was the focus of the debate organised by the Ordo Iuris Institute as part of the Warsaw conference of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe. Lawyers and journalists from Poland and abroad took part in the event.
The Constitutional Tribunal has still not considered the motion for declaring the unconstitutionality of provisions allowing eugenic abortion. In the opinion of the so-called friend of the court, the Ordo Iuris Institute proves that provisions of the abortion law are not compliant with the Constitution. This concerns the regulations that abolish penalty for killing an unborn child, if there is “high probability of a serious and irreversible impairment of the fetus or an incurable disease threatening his life”. That was the topic to which the Ordo Iuris dedicat
The 10th of December marked the 70th anniversary of enacting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ordo Iuris has long undertaken international activities aimed at protecting the family. These included the Institute's experts' participation in the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting organised in Warsaw by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
There are many myths about the legal protection of life in the public space. One of them is the claim that Poland, in comparison to most countries of the world, protects the life of unborn children very well. This was the topic of a press conference of the Ordo Iuris Institute.
INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF LIFE PROTECTION - DOWNLOAD
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