The Religious Freedom Laboratory undertakes activities related to monitoring and responding to all forms of discrimination based on religious affiliation. To this end, an annual report is prepared presenting cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in the Republic of Poland. It is compiled at the end of each calendar year on the basis of an analysis of the data collected, showing trends and changes in relation to the previous year and in relation to the scale of the phenomenon in selected European countries.
The report is presented in the first quarter of the following year at a special press conference devoted to this issue. Our Laboratory presented the report for 2019 for the first time during a press conference held in Warsaw on the eve of the International Day Commemorating Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief (August 21, 2020).
The reports prepared by the Religious Freedom Laboratory aim to:
The fifth edition of the report presents 71 cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in Poland that took place between January 1 and December 31, 2024, which were made public through the media and reported to the Information and Consultation Center of the Religious Freedom Laboratory.
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Violations are divided into seven categories:
a. Physical attacks on believers (clergy and lay people)
b. Destruction and desecration of places of worship (churches,
shrines, cemeteries)
c. Destruction and desecration of religious symbols and objects of
worship (crosses, statues, images of saints)
d. Restrictions on public worship (malicious disruption of religious
acts: prayers, liturgy)
e. Discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs (restriction of
rights on the basis of religious beliefs)
f. Inciting hatred on the basis of religious differences or insulting
a group of people or an individual on the basis of their religious
affiliation
g. Other
The most numerous group of violations of the right to religious freedom in 2024, accounting for 52.11% of the cases catalogued in the report, were acts of destruction and desecration of places of worship: shrines, churches, cemeteries, and roadside shrines. The negative phenomena intensified in the spring, when a total of 22 cases of violations of religious freedom (30.98% in total) were recorded in March and April.
The report presents 107 cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in Poland that took place between January 1 and December 31, 2023, which were made public through the media and reported to the Information and Consultation Center of the Religious Freedom Laboratory.
As in the years 2019-2022, the most numerous group of violations of the right to religious freedom in 2023, accounting for 62.62% of the cases catalogued in the report, were acts of destruction and desecration of places of worship: cathedrals, sanctuaries, churches, cemeteries, and roadside shrines. The variety of forms of persecution in this category included: desecration (placing offensive and vulgar inscriptions or satanic symbols), partial destruction of property, arson, burglary, and theft in sacred places.
The second important trend emerging in Poland since 2020 is the systematic increase in the awareness of believers about the forms of protection available to them, which is reflected in a significant increase in the number of violations reported to the competent law enforcement authorities (the police or the prosecutor’s office).
Incidents in which believers sought the intervention of state security agencies in 2023 accounted for 87.85% of all cases included in the report. 1.87% of violations were not reported to the relevant law enforcement authorities. In 10.28% of all cases, no information on the status of the proceedings was provided in the media.
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The violations were divided into six categories:
a. physical attacks on believers (clergy and lay people),
b. destruction and desecration of places of worship (churches, chapels, cemeteries),
c. destruction and desecration of religious symbols and objects of religious worship (crosses, statues, images of saints),
d. restrictions on public worship (malicious disruption of religious acts: prayers, liturgy),
e. incitement to hatred on the basis of religious differences or desecration of a group of people or an individual because of their religious affiliation,
f. other.
Violations of religious freedom in Poland in 2023:
The presented report reveals 275 cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in Poland between 1 January to 31 December 2020, made public through the media and reported to the Information and Consultation Center of the Laboratory of Religious Freedom.
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They are divided into seven categories:
Violations of religious freedom in Poland in 2022:
The following report shows 158 cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in Poland in the period from January 1 to December 31, 2021, which were made public through the media or reported to the Information and Consultation Center of the Laboratory of Religious Freedom.
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They are divided into seven categories:
Violations of religious freedom in Poland in 2021:
The presented report shows 280 cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in Poland between January 1 to December 31, 2020, made public through the media and reported to the Information and Consultation Center of the Laboratory of Religious Freedom.
click to download file
The violations are divided into seven categories:
Violations of religious freedom in Poland in 2020:
The presented report shows 72 cases of violations of the right to religious freedom in Poland between January 1 to December 31, 2019, made public through the media.
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Violations of religious freedom in Poland in 2019: