Basic laws

The Polish legal documentation contains detailed rights of the national minorities. The most important act is Constitution of The Republic of Poland. Among the other legal documents one has to mention: electoral law, right of the gatherings, Polish Language Act, Educational System Act, Directive of The Minister of Education concerning education which enables to sustain the national, ethnic and language identity of the pupils from the national minorities, Directive of the same minister on increasing the educational subvention for the national minorities schools by 20% or by 50% in comparison to the other schools, Radio and Television Act, criminal code, administration, civil and criminal codes and protection of personal data act.

Poland had also signed many acts of international law, which regulate the rights of national minorities such as: Convention on Protection of The Human Rights and Basic Freedoms, November 4th 1950; International Convention on Abolition of any Kind of Racial Discrimination, March 7th 1966; International Document on Political and Citizen Rights, December 16th 1966 and Convention on Children Rights from November 20th 1989.

In Europe the most important document, which regulates the rights of national minorities is The Council’s of Europe Frame Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. In 1995 Poland had signed this document, and it was ratified on November 10th 2000. Our country had become a Convention’s party on April 1st 2001.

The articles regarding the rights of specific national minorities were found in bilateral treaties, which Poland had signed with all of the neighbouring countries.

The basic rights of national minorities, guaranteed by the Polish law are:

• Ban on discrimination and on organisations, whose program or activity assumes or allows racial or national hatred;

• Freedom of sustaining and development of its own language;

• Freedom of sustaining customs, tradition and the development of its own culture;

• The right to learn the language and in its own language;

• The right to free possibility of religious practices;

• The right to create its own educational, cultural institutions and the kind that are focused on the protection of religious identity;

• The right to participate in decision making process regarding its own national identity;

• Election priorities for the electoral committees of national minorities.

The Team on National Minorities

The Team on National Minorities was created on February 6th 2002, to serve as an advisement committee for the Prime Minister. It is continuing the work of Inter-ministerial Team on National Minorities, which existed between 1997 and 2001.
The Team includes the representatives of the Ministers, responsible for: the public administration, the public finances, education and upbringing, labour, justice, internal affairs, social security, international relations and The Committee of European Integration, the Chairman of The Main Bureau of Statistics, the Council for Protection of Memory of the Battle and Martyrdom, and also the Chairman of The Repatriation and Foreigners. The chairman of the Team is an under state secretary from The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, vice- chairman- under state secretary from The Ministry of Culture, and the secretary- vice director from the Department of Religion and National Minorities MSWiA. There also is a Sub- team, which deals with the educational matters of national minorities and a Sub- team on Roms Matters.

The main tasks of the Team are:

• The preparation of governmental activities, which might create the suitable conditions for the national minorities,

• Co- ordination of the governmental administrative units, responsible for the matters concerning minorities,

• Evaluation and proposed solutions to provide the rights and to fulfil the needs of the minorities,

• Fighting any cases of their rights violation,

• Initiating a study on the national minorities situation in Poland,

• Popularisation and spreading information about their issues and problems into a polish society,

The National Minority Unit in Department of Religion and National Minorities MSWiA

On January 2000 The National Minority Unit was created in a structure of MSWiA. Its tasks include conducting the issues of national minorities, especially:

• Preparing- in agreement with the representatives of other ministries- the proposals to the states policy concerning national minorities,

• Providing assistance (tasks and technical organisation) to The Team on National Minorities, including the preparation of materials for the Team’s meetings and the minutes from these meetings,

• Co-operation with the governmental and self- governmental administrative units to consider the local needs of national minorities,

• Sustaining the current contacts with the leaders of the national minorities social organisations and providing them, as much as possible, with assistance so they could implement their statutory objectives,

• Conducting activities to respect the rights of the national minorities,

• Conducting activities to solve the problems of the national minorities,

• Conducting activities in order to combat any case of the violation of national minorities rights,

• Preparing and co-ordinating the programs for the national minorities,

• Preparing the problem information, regarding the national minorities for the governmental administrative units, Seym and Senate of The Republic of Poland,

• Preparing materials concerning the co- operation with institutions and organisations, working on behalf of the national minorities under The European Commission, The Council of Europe and Organisation of Security and Co- operation in Europe,

• Preparing materials concerning the honouring of the national minorities rights, linked to the internal law and international obligations of The Republic of Poland,

• Organising and conducting the training for the employees of the voivodship units responsible for issues concerning the national minorities.

Wydział Mniejszości Narodowych
Departament Wyznań i Mniejszości Narodowych
Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji

02- 591 Warszawa ul. Batorego 5,
tel: (22) 601 15 39, 601 15 48
fax (22) 601 15 38
e-mail: wmn.dw@mswia.gov.pl