Polish Court Helps Government Rid Itself of Independent Ombudsman

Poland's independent human rights commissioner will be forced to leave office following a ruling on Thursday by the government-controlled Constitutional Tribunal that it is unconstitutional for him to remain in his post after his term of office has expired.

The ruling will pave the way for Adam Bodnar's removal as Ombudsman, which is being seen as another step in the nationalist-populist Law and Justice (PiS) government's attempts to exert control over nominally independent institutions, from the courts to the media. The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, which could now end up being led by a PiS ally, will be sidelined, while Polish citizens will lose one of the main voices that has stood up for their rights and held an increasingly authoritarian government to account.

Bodnar's term as Ombudsman formally ended in September last year, but he has stayed in office because the governing Law and Justice-dominated Sejm and the opposition-dominated Senate, both of which have a role in naming a successor, could not agree on a candidate to take over.

On Thursday, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the law allowing the incumbent to stay in office until a replacement is found was unconstitutional. Bodnar will have to leave office in three months, when the legislation now deemed unconstitutional becomes invalid.

"The consequences of this ruling reach each of us," the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights said in a statement. "We will soon lose a defender of our rights and freedoms. We will feel on our own skins what not having an independent Ombudsman means."

During his more than five years in office, Bodnar has not only tried to stand up to the weakening of democratic institutions by the governing party, but has also defended...

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