Order of Polonia Restituta for Halina Bortnowska

On the twenty-second anniversary of the 4th June first free parliamentary elections, President Bronisław Komorowski decorated founders and activists of non-governmental organisations who contributed to the creation of the civic society after 1989.

The Commander’s Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order was awarded to Halina Bortnowska, Chair of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Council. In the 1970s, Ms. Bortnowska was a co-founder of the hospice movement in Poland and a creator of the first Polish hospice in Nowa Huta.She was a member of the underground Helsinki Committee in Poland in the 1980s and co-founder of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (1989).

Halina Bortnowska promotes global standards in journalism by holding journalism workshops for students, young reporters, schoolchildren, prisoners and other recipients. Since 1992, she has been the animator of the Workshops for Young Journalists “Polis” in Warsaw.

In 2000, Ms. Bortnowska co-founded Open Republic – Association against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia. She leads the Horizon Group – Against the Death Penalty, one of the HFHR satellite initiatives.