The European Court of Human Rights deems Poland's wiretapping laws overly intrusive.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has pronounced that the surveillance laws in Poland pose an excessive threat to the population. The legal system in Poland fails to provide adequate safeguards to avert "disproportionate utilization of surveillance and inappropriate interference in individuals' personal lives," as per the judges in Strasbourg.
By enacting these laws, Poland has effectively created a "surveillance system," allowing the communication of every user of telecommunications and internet services to be intercepted, without informing them about the surveillance. Furthermore, the legal system in Poland does not offer any legal recourse for individuals who might have been eavesdropped on.
Five Polish citizens, including the chairman of the Warsaw Bar Association, petitioned the Strasbourg Court in 2017 and 2018, claiming that the 2016 police and anti-terrorism laws enacted under the PiS administration infringed upon Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This article safeguards the right to respect for private and family life.
Following the Polish parliamentary elections last year, the PiS government was ousted, replaced by a pro-European administration led by the current Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
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The ECTHR also expressed concerns about the potential risks to human rights posed by these intrusive wiretapping laws in Poland. Should a case regarding wiretapping arise, it may be brought before the ECHR for further examination and potential violation of human rights.
Source: www.ntv.de
