Statement of NGO alliance

A Coalition of non-governmental organisations, which since 2006 has been operating the Civic Monitoring of the Procedure for Appointment of Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, has developed a statement on the appointment of judge Z. Jędrzejewski.

The coalition stated that the candidate did not accept its invitation to take part in the monitoring process. Representatives of the Coalition sent a letter to Z. Jędrzejewski. The letter included explanation of the concept of monitoring and asked Mr. Jędrzejewski to fill a questionnaire required to prepare and then publicly present a profile of the candidate. However, the request remained without reply.

Moreover, the coalition stated that the candidate did not reply to the questions of the Sejm deputies. The fact that a candidate did not answer deputes’ questions during a hearing of the Committee for Justice and Human Rights should be treated as a step backwards as compared to the practices developed over the years.

The voting on the candidacy of Z. Jędrzejewski was an important problem that appeared in the appointment process. According to the coalition of non-governmental organisations, the vote was taken in an atmosphere unworthy of this procedure. During the vote at the Sejm on 14 April 2016, the existing standards of voting were violated; ultimately, the appropriateness of the voting procedure is now being questioned by deputies from the opposition.

“In our opinion the process of appointing a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal cannot be conducted in an atmosphere depreciating this procedure. We hope that during future appointments decision-makers will make it fully possible to hold public debate on the candidates – not only through the possibility of receiving answers to the questions asked during the hearing before the Committee for Justice and Human Rights but also through open debates organised by representatives of the civic society”, reads the statement. It was also stated that meeting of the above-mentioned conditions will be possible not only due to the attitude presented by candidates but also due to such arrangement of the elections calendar which would enable non-governmental organisations to prepare such meetings.