POLISH HELSINKI HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION
FROM THE IMPLEMENTING PARTNER
TO UNHCR
TO THE ADVISOR TO THE EUROPEAN
COMMISSION DELEGATION
Independent expert legal opinion to the second version of the Aliens Act was commissioned by the Department of Migration and Refugee Affairs from the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation. This took place already at the stage when the Department was drafting an internal version of the project. The Foundation was aware of the work on the Act thanks to everyday informal contacts with the Department in the course of clarifying legal questions and operational work. Department sometimes shared information on the shortcomings of the system, asking the Foundation to support its petition with the Minister of Interior for larger budgets or staff. In this way, the Foundation had won trust from the lead agency.
Then the Foundation’s proposals were discussed each, and many of them were accepted at a closed forum. The Foundation then presented a public opinion to the project of the Ministry, which was sent to a reading in a sub-committee. The Foundation was the only non-governmental organization invited to the sessions of the subcommittee on the Aliens Act. Experts also attended from the Ministry of Interior, Border Guards, Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice, as well as from the UNHCR. UNHCR presented a separate opinion. Helsinki Foundation receives credit for its affiliation with the UNHCR but the fact of contributing an opinion separate from that of the UNHCR tells that the Foundation lawyers have a reputation independent of that of the UNHCR.
The Foundation wrote opinions to both the original and the amendment to the Aliens Act on its own initiative: this is not part of an agreement with the UNHCR.
Helsinki Foundation’s expertise was welcomed by the Ministry of Interior and its report complemented that of the UNHCR because the program went beyond UNHCR’s mandate of monitoring the execution of the Geneva Convention. Foundation became expert in the matters of aliens in general, which was natural given the background of one of its lawyers, Irena Rzeplinska. Ms. Rzeplinska is not only a refugee lawyer but also an academic, criminologist.
Helsinki Foundation extended its general mandate to monitor Polish legislation following the entry into force of the national laws introducing Geneva Convention to the Polish legal system. Even before the Convention entered into force and both the Bureau for Migration and Refugee Affairs and the Refugee Program of the Helsinki Foundation were formed, the Foundation had an impact on the shape of migration policy. President of the Foundation suggested to his colleague, new Minister of Interior, that a mutual friend of theirs, Mr. Skoczylas, would become the Plenipotentiary for the Migrants and Refugees.
The drafting of the second Aliens Act was also overseen by European Union experts, since the revision of the Act was a part of the effort to harmonize the Polish legislation with the acquis fully. EU delegation required that a non-governmental organization participate in Phare Horizontal briefing sessions, where every article of the Act was checked for consistency with the acquis. The meetings included the representatives of the EU, the Ministry of Interior, UNHCR and the Helsinki Foundation. Thanks to her expertise, Ms. Rzeplinska spoke at length about larger aspects of migration management such as crimes committed by aliens, which were of particular interest to the EU experts. Ms. Rzeplinska’s background as a lawyer was a plus considering that the EU representation consisted of prosecutors and judges. The invitation for Ms. Rzeplinska came from the Ministry of Interior at the insistence of the EU, which required participation of an NGO.
Refugee Program is currently expanding into larger migration issues. This is possible also because the Foundation attracted funds not only from UNHCR, but also from OSI. OSI funds programs on illegal migration, legalization of stay or counsel to foreigners. Ms. Rzeplinska stresses there that the Foundation does not oppose the measures verifying legality of employment, only criticizes the misapplication of procedures.
The Program won the attention from the EU experts because it had ventured into more political areas, which few NGOs had entered before. “Report on monitoring of border points” came about as a result of year-long pleas of the Foundation with the Border Guards, who considered border control a matter of state security and kept on refusing to let in the monitors.
Ms. Rzeplinska was briefed by EU experts in connection with a report for the Union on the state of preparation of the Polish law with that of the EU in Justice and Home Affairs in light of Poland’s accession to the Union. Two-thirds of the time the EU experts’ questions centered on the areas outside of the original mandate of the Foundation: security of Poland’s eastern borders. Experts verified with Ms. Rzeplinska the statistical data they received from the Ministry of Interior and Border Guards on criminality among aliens in Poland. She referred to the report on the monitoring of the border points.