Contributed by Agnieszka Mrozik, National VAW Monitor

On June 17, 2005, Polish Parliament rejected the draft of Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act. 212 members of Parliament (mainly from the right-wing parties) voted against the draft, while 187 supported it. The first reading of this version of the Act took place in 2003, second reading one year later and now, in the third reading, politicians decided to reject the draft. The Act guaranteed that both women and men had equal opportunities in every sphere of public and private life. It introduced the definition of gender based discrimination and banned both direct and indirect one. It obliged the state to support equal opportunities for women and men through provision of equal share in political, social and economic power. The Act guaranteed that both girls and boys had the same access to education and their equality should be visible in school-books. It provided men and women equal opportunities at work and equal access to the social security and healthcare. It stated that both women and men had the same rights and duties in family life, which means equal share in their homework and childcare. It also banned sexual harassment. The Act established independent Ministry of Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The Minister, appointed for 5 years, was to monitor equal opportunities regulations and programs and to intervene when the law was broken.

Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act was to specify constitutional statements on equal rights of women and men and to implement international obligations, including Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Amsterdam Treaty (1997) and Directive 2002/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. The rejection of the Act may cause that Directive 2002/73/EC will not be implemented by October 5, 2005, which threatens Poland with fines.

The only good news is that after four years of exertions made by women’s NGOs, in March 2005, the Polish Parliament established a Commission for Equal Status of Men and Women. Its main tasks will concern the issues connected with constitutional rule on equal rights for men and women, including their equal opportunities in political, social and economic life. The Commission will check how equal rights regulations work in the legislative process. It will also supervise the tasks of Polish government obliged by international treaties to protect women’s rights and put equal opportunities into practice.

Teresa Jasztal from Democratic Left Alliance was appointed to be the chairwoman of the Commission. In the Commission there are no representatives of conservative political parties – League of Polish Families and Law and Justice – because these forces were against the idea of calling the Commission. So far the Commission was involved in checking the results of National Program of Activities for Women and interested in the report of State Inspectorate of Labour, which concern the observance of antidiscriminatory right by employers in the workplace.