A new benefit for forgotten victims of the Polish People's Republic. The parliamentary committee supported the changes

The Parliamentary Social Policy Committee supported the draft amendment to the act on anti-communist opposition activists. This is a provision under which the status of a repressed person will be available to a person against whom a juvenile court or a family court has ordered the application of corrective or educational measures for their activities in the Polish People's Republic.

During the meeting of the Sejm Committee for Social Policy and Family, the first reading of the Senate bill amending the Act on anti-communist opposition activists and persons repressed for political reasons took place.

Justifying the project, Senator Alicja Zając (PiS) pointed out that on October 10, 2024, the Ombudsman sent a request to the Senate Committee on Family, Senior Policy and Social Policy to take a legislative initiative aimed at ensuring that the status of a person repressed for political reasons could be granted to people who “although due to their young age, have not been convicted by a court for activities aimed at regaining Poland's independence and sovereignty or respecting political human rights in Poland, but corrective or educational measures were applied to them because of such activities.

– At its meeting in May 2025, the Commission took this initiative and decided to prepare such an act. The project is very short, containing only a change affecting one article. The committee unanimously adopted the bill, and during the Senate meeting, all senators present voted for the bill. We did not expect that the committee would receive so many comments, applications and phone calls with suggestions for extending this project. However, this was not possible because he was responding only to the Ombudsman's proposal, she explained.

Sebastian Gajewski, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, added that the Council of Ministers adopted a positive stance on the project. – The project aims to adapt to the requirements arising from the constitutional principle of equality, one of the statuses provided for by the Act on anti-communist opposition activists and persons repressed for political reasons, or more precisely, the status of a person repressed for these reasons – he said.

This status, as he noted, is assigned to several groups of entities, and one of them are people who, in connection with their activities for the independence or sovereignty of Poland or respect for political human rights in Poland, have been pursued with an arrest warrant, accused of committing a crime, convicted of committing a crime or repeatedly convicted of committing an offense.

– This shape of the subjective circle of people who may obtain the status of a person repressed for political reasons excludes people who, although they took up activities for the independence and sovereignty of Poland or respect for political human rights in Poland, and repressive proceedings were initiated or were conducted against them related to the threat of a specific act with a criminal penalty, but they were not convicted of either a crime or a misdemeanor because, due to the provisions in force at that time regarding proceedings in juvenile matters, they could not be held criminally or misdemeanor liable – he said Gajewski.

This project, as he emphasized, therefore concerns people who undertook such activities, and the repression undertaken against them amounted not to accusation or conviction for crimes or multiple convictions for committing an offense, but to “initiating and conducting proceedings in juvenile cases, which ended with the adjudication of a corrective measure, i.e. placement in a correctional facility or an educational measure, i.e. the establishment of the supervision of a probation officer, the supervision of a responsible parent, a warning or placement in an educational institution.”

– In our opinion, the solution provided for in the project aims to ensure compliance of the provisions of the Act on anti-communist opposition activists with the requirements arising from the constitutional principle of equality – Gajewski noted. He also pointed out that the current regulation is “particularly harmful to the above-mentioned group of people, because it seems that in the case of an adult, e.g. being searched on an arrest warrant or even being convicted of committing an offense multiple times could be less painful than, for example, placing a person between 13 and 17 years of age in a reformatory or educational institution.”

– Especially since, as historical experience shows, the imposition of a corrective or educational measure was usually also associated with other repressions in the school and social environment in which the young person and his family functioned. For this reason, the Council of Ministers adopted a positive stance towards this project. On the one hand, these people will be able to acquire the status of a person repressed for political reasons, and on the other hand, benefit from benefits, in this case mainly the right to monetary and compensatory benefits and the possibility of applying for financial assistance – he pointed out.

The financial effects of the project, as Gajewski added, are small because this is the circle it can cover. It is estimated at approximately 260 people, and he estimated the costs of bringing this act into force at approximately PLN 3.5 million per year.

Committee members supported the bill along with the language changes that the Legislative Office was authorized to introduce. The rapporteur was MP Dorota Marek (KO). (PAP)

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