Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram | |
|---|---|
 Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram in 2020 | |
| Born | 19 November 1982 |
| Education | University of Warsaw |
| Occupation(s) | attorney, social activist |
| Employer | Clifford Chance |
| Known for | Wolne Sądy |
| Spouse | Grzegorz Abram |
Sylwia Marta Gregorczyk-Abram (born 19 November 1982) is a Polish attorney and social activist.
Graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw (2006), she completed a postgraduate degree in medical law, bioethics, and sociology. [1] In 2010 she was admitted to the Warsaw Bar as an advocate.
Since 2006 professionally affiliated with Clifford Chance law office in Warsaw, where she is responsible for pro bono legal practice. [2] She specialises in legal proceedings as well as civil and criminal law. [3] In April 2016 she became a proxy for cooperation with non-governmental organisations at the Warsaw Bar Association. [3] In recognition of her legal and public activity, in 2021 she was chosen Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University. [4]
Throughout her career, Gregorczyk-Abram has provided pro bono legal advice to non-governmental organisations which promote the rule of law and advocate for a systemic reform of the Poland’s judiciary, [3] including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Habitat for Humanity Poland or Court Watch Poland Foundation. [5] She is a member of the board of Zbigniew Holda Association, [6] where she ran "Constitutional Week" – a nationwide initiative of lawyers who give lessons about the Polish Constitution in primary and secondary schools. [7]
In 2017, amid a series of public protests against the judiciary reforms introduced by the Law and Justice (PiS) government, along with Maria Ejchart-Dubois, Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik and Michał Wawrykiewicz, she co-founded the Free Courts Civic Initiative (Inicjatywa Obywatelska “Wolne Sądy”). [8] In December 2019, the group organised a series of public protests against the proposed legislation that allowed the newly formed Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court of Poland to punish judges who engage in what the government deemed "political activity". [9] [10] [11] In 2018, she was among co-founders of the Komitet Obrony Sprawiedliwości (KOS, Justice Defence Committee). [12] [4] [13]
In 2019, Gregorczyk-Abram successfully represented LGBT+ groups on a pro bono basis in their legal motion against a pro-government conservative Polish newspaper Gazeta Polska which resulted in the court’s decision to halt the distribution of controversial “LGBT-free zone” stickers. [14] [15] [16] [17] She also served as a representative of judges appealing to the Court of Justice of the European Union in joint case C-585/18, C-624/18iC-625/18A.K, [18] concerning the independence of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court as well as in the case C-487/19 of a Polish judge Waldemar Żurek questioning his transfer to another court, [19] [20] which both ended with a ruling undermining the legality of the reforms introduced by the Polish government. [21]
Poland does not legally recognize same-sex unions, either in the form of marriage or civil unions. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have limited legal rights in regards to the tenancy of a shared household. A few laws also guarantee certain limited rights for unmarried couples, including couples of the same sex. Same-sex spouses also have access to residency rights under EU law.
Clifford Chance LLP is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England, and a member of the "Magic Circle", a group of leading London-based multinational law firms.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Poland face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. According to ILGA-Europe's 2024 report, the status of LGBTQ rights in Poland is the worst among the European Union countries.
Zbigniew Tadeusz Ziobro is a Polish politician. He served as the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Poland in the Cabinet of Mateusz Morawiecki until 27 November 2023. He previously served in the same role from October 2005 to November 2007, simultaneously serving as the Public Prosecutor General. He was elected to the Sejm on 25 September 2005 in the 13th Kraków district, running on the Law and Justice party list. He received over 120,000 votes in the parliamentary election, the highest percentage constituency results in the election.
Poland and the Czech Republic are both members of the European Union and of NATO. Both joined the EU simultaneously on 1 May 2004. They also both joined NATO on 12 March 1999. Both countries, together with Slovakia and Hungary, form the Visegrád Group, which is an important regional group in Central Europe. Both countries are also members of the Bucharest Nine, Three Seas Initiative, OECD, OSCE, Council of Europe and the World Trade Organization.
The judiciary of Poland are the authorities exercising the judicial power of the Polish state on the basis of Chapter 8 of the Constitution of Poland. As in almost all countries of continental Europe, the Polish judiciary operates within the framework of civil law.
Homosexuality has been legal in Poland since 1932. However, homosexuality has been a taboo subject for most of Poland's history, and that and the lack of legal discrimination have often led to a lack of historical sources on the subject. Homophobia has been a common public attitude in Poland because of the influence of Catholic Church in Polish public life and the widespread social conservatism in Poland. Homosexuality in Poland was decriminalized in 1932, but recriminalized following the Invasion of Poland in 1939.
Łazarski University is a private Polish university located in Warsaw, founded by Ryszard Łazarski in 1993.
The Polish Sejm crisis was a period of political stalemate in Poland's national legislature from 16 December 2016 to 12 January 2017, resulting from an attempt to limit freedom of the press at the Sejm buildings in Warsaw, Poland. The attempt to reorganize press access to Sejm members, certain chambers and deliberations led to protests by opposition-party Sejm members, and by pro-opposition citizens of Poland's major cities, including Warsaw.
The Citizens of Poland is an informal civic movement in Poland engaged in pro-democracy actions and anti-fascist movement, opposed to the actions of the government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. Citizens of Poland practice non-violent civil disobedience.
LGBT-free zones were municipalities and regions of Poland that have declared themselves unwelcoming of LGBT rights, in order to ban equality marches and other LGBT events. By June 2020, some 100 municipalities (map) and five voivodeships, encompassing a third of the country, had adopted resolutions which have been characterized as "LGBT-free zones". On the 6th February 2024 Warsaw Voivodship Administrative Court repealed the last "LGBT-free zone" in Poland.
Przemysław Czarnek is a Polish politician and academic, who was voivode of the Lubelskie Voivodeship from 2015–2019. He was elected in 2019 as a member of the 9th Sejm as a member of Law and Justice. Czarnek is notable for his opposition to LGBT rights, his controversial comments on women's rights, and supporting corporal punishment for children. He filed a criminal case in opposition to the recognition of Ukrainian victims of the Home Army in the 1944 Sahryń massacre.
Sylwia Iwona Spurek is a Polish lawyer, as well as a social and political activist. A doctor of law, lecturer, solicitor, and legislator, she specialises in criminal law. Spurek is a member of the Polish Society of Anti-Discrimination Law and the Polish Legislative Society. From 2019 to 2024 she served as a Member of the European Parliament.
Szymon Hołownia's Poland 2050 is a centrist to centre-right political party in Poland.
Bartosz (Bart)Staszewski (born 23 September 1990 in Malmö, Sweden) is a Polish filmmaker and LGBT activist. He is the creator of the documentary Article Eighteen, co-founder of the Equality March in Lublin association and the Miłość Nie Wyklucza foundation ('Love Does Not Exclude'), which promotes same-sex marriage in Poland. Staszewski was the target of death threats and intimidation in 2019 and 2021 in relation to his activism.
On 7 August 2020, a protest against the arrest of LGBT activist Margot led to a confrontation with police in central Warsaw, Poland, which resulted in the arrest of 47 others, some of whom were protesting, and others who were bystanders. The event was called Tęczowa Noc – translated as Rainbow Night – and was dubbed "Polish Stonewall" by some outlets, in an analogy to the 1969 Stonewall riots.
Profaning a monument, also translated as insulting a monument, is criminalized by Article 261 of the Criminal Code of Poland, punishable by a fine or restriction of liberty. The law makes no distinction between worthy and unworthy objects of commemoration. A relatively small number of people have been charged under the law, of whom not all were convicted.
The 2020–2021 women's strike protests in Poland, commonly called the Women's Strike, were anti-government demonstrations and protests in Poland that began on 22 October 2020, in reaction to a ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal, mainly consisting of judges who were appointed by the ruling Law and Justice dominated United Right, which tightened the law on abortion in Poland. The ruling made almost all cases of abortion illegal, including those cases in which the foetus had a severe and permanent disability, or an incurable and life-threatening disease. All-Poland Women's Strike was charged by the authorities for having illegally organised the protests.
The Polish constitutional crisis, also known as the Polish rule-of-law crisis, is a political conflict ongoing since 2015 in which the Polish government has been accused of failing to comply with European and Polish constitutional law. The 2015 elections resulted in the Law and Justice party winning control of both the presidency and the parliament. With this government trifecta, PiS used its power to appoint judges to the Constitutional Tribunal in 2015, leading to the 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis. The government of Poland continued to expand its hold on the judiciary resulting in the 2017 Supreme Court crisis, and the 2019 Polish judicial disciplinary panel law. These events allowed the legislature and executive of the Polish government to have de facto control over judges and their appointments.
A Polish withdrawal from the European Union, or Polexit, is the name given to a hypothetical Polish withdrawal from the European Union. The term was coined after Brexit, the process of Britain's withdrawal from the EU which took place between 2016 and 2020. Opinion polls held in the country, between 2016 and 2021, indicated majority support for continued membership of the European Union (EU). A 2022 survey indicated that "[at] least eight-in-ten adults in Poland" believed that the EU "promotes peace, democratic values and prosperity". The 2023 Polish parliamentary election was won by a coalition of predominantly pro-EU parties.
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