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Description
While the Polish Society of Anti-Discrimination Law has observed increased activity in the legal community regarding human rights cases, the lawyers dealing with these issues are located primarily in Warsaw. In some voivodships, people whose human rights are breached can count on one or two lawyers for help, or cannot find any at all. Defending human rights is not a compulsory subject on law courses. The existing additional programs at institutions of higher education only fill this gap to a limited extent, usually on a theoretical level, with no option of acquiring practical skills. Current programs other than those at institutions of higher education define human rights in a manner that is not aligned with the idea of raising awareness of discrimination prevention issues. Under the project, a program will be devised to develop human rights law leaders among future and current lawyers under the name Equal Rights Academy. The program will be developed in collaboration with student organizations active in defending human rights and with the legal community, with a focus on practical coaching on how to handle cases. The project will include a pilot scheme for the program in a group of 15 people. Four conference sessions are envisaged in the pilot plan, and one-on-one and group practical assignments concerning breach of human rights and the rule of law, and monitoring. When the pilot stage is completed, the final version of the program will be created. The project will be implemented by domestic partners, who will assist with the participant enrollment and training process, and organization of the conferences themselves. The Equal Rights Academy aims to improve the skills and reach of the legal community with respect to anti-discrimination law. It also aims to provide training for 15 people to handle the cases of people whose human rights have been breached. The Equal Rights Academy program will go to more than 60 law course institutions for further use.
Summary of project results
For several years now, one can notice an increase in the activity of lawyers in the area of anti-discrimination. This trend, however, applies mainly to Warsaw. In some provinces, people experiencing human rights violations can count on the help of individual lawyers, or they cannot get any help at all (it was difficult, for example, to find people to represent the local organizers of the banned equality marches in Rzeszow, Nowy Targ or Gniezno). There is no mandatory preparation for human rights protection at law school, and existing supplementary programs only marginally fill the gap. At the same time, there is a growing activity of government institutions and far-right organizations that - using the legal definition of discrimination - de facto incite exclusion and hatred.
The project developed a program for the development of legal leaders for future and current lawyers, the so-called Equality Academy. The first pilot edition of the Academy was held, with 15 participants. The program included four conventions, work on three community projects and mentoring. The conventions were devoted to anti-discrimination law, monitoring or counteracting actvist burnout, among other topics. The social projects culminated in reports that were created under the Project Promoter''s substantive supervision: a report on sexual harassment at universities, on the functioning of the Law on the Implementation of Certain EU Provisions on Equal Treatment, and on jurisprudence practice in gender adjustment cases. Participants and participants of the Academy, with mentoring support, provided assistance to people experiencing discrimination and exclusion.
Those who took part in the first edition of the Academy improved their competence in protecting human rights and handling the cases of people experiencing discrimination, as well as taking initiatives to promote equality laws and standards both in the legal community and in the local community. 34 people experiencing discrimination received professional pro bono legal support. The legal community''s outreach in the area of anti-discrimination law has also expanded. A unique Equality Academy program has been established to benefit entities offering legal education. The Supreme Bar Council and a major law firm are interested in carrying out further editions of the program.