The Polish Senate on Wednesday voted to appoint attorney Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram as the new Human Rights Defender, succeeding Prof. Marcin Wi\u0105cek after his five-year term. <\/p>\n
The Senate voted 59 to 25 to approve Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram as the Human Rights Defender, with no abstentions. She will replace Prof. Marcin Wi\u0105cek after his five-year term concludes on Thursday, July 23, following his appointment in 2021.<\/p>\n
According to “Wyborcza”, the Senate vote was preceded by numerous questions. Former Ombudsman and former Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar inquired about findings from the commission she headed regarding police abuses against citizens between 2015 and 2023. Gregorczyk-Abram responded that she had presented recommendations to the Minister of the Interior and Administration, Marcin Kierwi\u0144ski.<\/p>\n
PiS senators questioned the candidate regarding her understanding of “apoliticality” in the context of her activity in Free Courts and participation in demonstrations. Gregorczyk-Abram explained that deep polarization causes the appropriation of certain concepts, but the office she will lead is apolitical. She noted that she participated in the June 4 march and would do the same today, believing protesting citizens deserved a voice on that stage alongside politicians.<\/p>\n
Born in 1982, attorney, human rights, and rule of law defender Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram is a graduate of law from the University of Warsaw. She is a co-founder of the Free Courts initiative, the Committee for the Defense of Justice, and a board member of the Prof. Zbigniew Ho\u0142da Association.<\/p>\n
In May 2025, she became chairwoman of the commission to investigate mechanisms of repression against civil society organizations and activists from 2015 to 2023, operating under the Ministry of Justice. The lawyer is involved in the rights of persons with disabilities, repeatedly referencing her personal experience as the mother of a child with a disability.<\/p>\n
The Human Rights Defender is appointed by the Sejm with the consent of the Senate. The candidacy of attorney Gregorczyk-Abram was put forward by MPs of the Civic Coalition and the Left. The countercandidate was Adam Borowski, nominated by Law and Justice, an opposition activist from the communist era who in the Third Polish Republic became associated with the PiS environment and headed the Warsaw “Gazeta Polska” club. On Friday, the Sejm majority supported the election of Gregorczyk-Abram.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated on Friday that the lawyer acted publicly not for political or party reasons, but out of deeply held convictions about human rights and the independence of the justice system, calling her an exceptionally competent candidate regarding both legal knowledge and moral standards.<\/p>\n
Conversely, the PiS environment opposed the candidacy. Marcin Warcho\u0142, a PiS MP and former deputy minister of justice, told “Do Rzeczy” that she is a compromised and extremely politicized person who should face justice rather than receive accolades.<\/p>\n
Following the Sejm’s Friday decision, the lawyer addressed allegations of politicization in a media interview, emphasizing that as an attorney she has repeatedly represented people with differing political views and life perspectives, and this has never affected her working methods or overshadowed the defense of their rights and values, which will apply to the Ombudsman office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Polish Senate on Wednesday voted to appoint attorney Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram as the new Human Rights Defender, succeeding Prof. Marcin Wi\u0105cek after his five-year term. Senate Vote and Previous Inquiries The Senate voted 59 to 25 to approve Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram as the Human Rights Defender, with no abstentions. She will replace Prof. Marcin Wi\u0105cek after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}