The Polish Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights Protection: Decaying Communism to Pluralist Democracy Through An Ombudsman’s Eyes

The Polish Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights Protection was established during the Communist regime but survived the transition to plural democracy after 1989, despite suggestions that the Office was a survival from the Communist era which ought to be dismantled as part of the transition to democracy. His role has involved securing respect for the law by officials who were accustomed to ignore it so long as they followed the Communist Party’s ‘line’. Equally, many citizens still find challenging officialdom daunting because of their experience of the old regime. Hence much of the Commissioner’s work has entailed pursuing official illegalities through the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Administrative Court, rather than pursuing claims of maladministration. The Commissioner has become engaged in several of the major controversies facing Polish society, in particular the introduction of religious instruction into the public schools and the circumstances in which an abortion may legally be carried out. Also, there have been many complaints about the government’s inability to maintain social security payments. Furthermore, successive Commissioners have criticized the inability of President and Sejm to agree on a new constitution. The Commissioner is now securely established among European ombudsmen and the Office has become an important factor in ensuring his country’s compliance with its international obligations, especially in the field of human rights.