Poland’s wide-ranging judicial reforms have “fundamentally affected” all parts of country’s justice system, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe said in a report issued Friday.
It's yet another blow from a European body against the legal and social changes brought in by Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party in recent years, and comes as the government prepares for this fall's parliamentary elections.
Dunja Mijatović, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, a pan-European human rights watchdog with 47 member states that is not an EU institution, visited Poland in March to investigate the independence of the judiciary and women’s sexual and reproductive rights.
The report is likely to add ammunition to the opposition, which accuses PiS of authoritarianism and is trying to frame the upcoming election as a fight over Polish democracy.
The government's efforts to tighten already restrictive abortion laws sparked massive protests in 2016 by women, and it has since held off on the issue wary of the political risks.
The Polish government has ignored previous Council of Europe reports. However, it is having a more difficult time with the EU, which has turned to the European Court of Justice.
However Mijatović found ongoing problems, saying the government should ensure “effective access” to abortion for Polish women. She said European Court of Human Rights judgements on restricting access to legal abortion “remain unimplemented," and that delay in accessing abortion poses “a very real and grave risk to women’s life and health.”
The hard-hitting report adds to the government's growing headache over judicial reforms, which have led to a long running confrontation with the EU, as well as tensions with allies like Germany and the U.S.
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