Description
The objective of the project is to create an effective mechanism to monitor legislative initiatives of public authorities concerning counteracting discrimination, and to disseminate information on legislative processes. The project is also aimed at developing recommendations for amendments in the existing legal solutions, based mainly on recommendations developed by international human rights bodies. The project should also lead to strengthening (through expert training) advocacy skills of equal rights organisations, to enable them to effectively use recommendations from international bodies. The project will be implemented through participation of project experts in legislative processes, e.g. in meetings of parliamentary committees, participation in social consultations of legal drafts, and prompt reaction to particular legislative proposals, e.g. in the form of expert seminars open for representatives of media. Partner organisation would share it's experience in monitoring and advocacy by preparing agenda for a training and carrying it out and by participating in the international conference.
Summary of project results
"Over recent years, many recommendations issued by international organisations concerning discriminated group protection have not been made part of Polish legislation. There is a shortage of non-governmental organisations capable of continuous and organised tracing of equality-related legislative amendments. The sluggish rate of implementing recommendations by Polish authorities is also due to poor advocacy skills of the civic society. The purpose of the project was to create an effective mechanism monitoring legislative initiatives, focusing on preventing discrimination and providing non-governmental organisations with practical knowledge on implementing international authority recommendations. A mechanism of monitoring legislative activities taken by public authorities in the field of equal treatment was created. Project recipients were told of most recent public authority initiatives, including professional descriptions thereof. Nineteen training course participants learned how to become effective in applying recommendations issued by international organisations. Five anti-discrimination law-related events were organised: 3 press conferences, a pre-election debate, and an expert seminar. The legislative process monitoring exercise yielded 15 legal opinions. An alternative reporting training course was delivered for 19 people representing human right organisations. A summary conference was held; 400 copies of a publication containing recommended legislative amendments were produced. The project benefitted 19 non-governmental organisation representatives. Issues concerning antidiscrimination law described during project events reached approximately 1,900 recipients (web reach: approximately 1,750 recipients; direct contact: 150 recipients). At least 150 individuals (project event participants) were provided with legal opinion knowledge. The project was implemented jointly with the Icelandic Human Rights Centre, responsible for training events throughout the endeavour."
Summary of bilateral results
The bilateral cooperation regarded mainly the workshop for Polish human rights NGOs on how to effectively work out and present alternative reports to the international bodies. The Icelandic Centre for Human Rights contributed to the working out of the workshop agenda as well as to the actual workshop activities. Thanks to the contribution to this part of the project we gained a new perspective on how the presence of human rights NGOs can be effectively used in daily advocacy work. We also learned how to use the recommendations from the international bodies in national advocacy strategies. The bilateral cooperation strengthened the results of the project which are the skills and visibility of human rights NGOs in the international debate on human rights and non-discrimination. One of the tangible results of the bilateral cooperation is a shadow report which was worked out and presented to the UN Human Rights Committee prepared by the participants of the workshop organized within the project.