{"id":95168,"date":"2016-05-06T15:57:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T23:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=95168"},"modified":"2016-05-06T15:57:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T23:57:02","slug":"poland-abolishes-anti-racism-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=95168","title":{"rendered":"Poland Abolishes Anti-Racism Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Breitbart<\/a>: Poland\u2019s landslide-elected right-wing government has abolished the national Council Against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. <\/p>\n

The Law and Justice (PiS) party this week scrapped a public body designed to fight racism and investigate \u201chate crimes\u201d, citing its inefficiency. Government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told reporters the council\u2019s responsibilities will be taken over by \u201cmore efficient\u201d state institutions.<\/p>\n

The Council Against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance was set up by the previous government led by the liberal Civic Platform party, who were voted out of office last October after they agreed with the European Union (EU) that the country would take several thousand non-European migrants.<\/p>\n

The human rights Ombudsman, and parties opposed to PiS, have widely condemned the government\u2019s abolition of the body as they say hate crimes are increasing in Poland. \u201cIt\u2019s shameful. The council is absolutely necessary amid the increasing number of racially motivated attacks and rising xenophobia,\u201d Ombudsman Adam Bodnar told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fears, spread by certain political parties about refugees are feeding into racist comments on the Internet, and this has not been firmly condemned,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The Times of Israel reported that Polish prosecutors last launched 1,500 probes into cases of alleged discrimination and racially motivated hate crimes, up from the investigation of 60 such cases in 2009.<\/p>\n

Polish politician Katarzyna Lubnauer, of the socially and economically liberal Modern party, said she was \u201coutraged\u201d at the liquidation of the state council. Given increasing reluctance in Poland towards accepting \u201cpeople of another colour, another race, or who use a language other than Polish\u201d, the MP stressed she believes the institution is \u201dvery much needed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Comments below Polish television network TVN\u2019s coverage of the story were broadly supportive of the move, with one person writing \u201c\u2018Anti-racism council liquidated\u2019 \u2013 rightly so, looking at what\u2019s happening in Germany or France\u201d, seemingly referring to the problems those European countries are facing as a result of having large numbers of non-European migrants.<\/p>\n

Civic Platform politician Rafal Grupi\u0144ski claimed that scrapping the anti-racism body, which was established in 2013 by then Prime Minister of Poland, current European Council President Donald Tusk, is \u201ccontrary to the rules of the European Union\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Breitbart: Poland\u2019s landslide-elected right-wing government has abolished the national Council Against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. The Law and Justice (PiS) party this week scrapped a public body designed to fight racism and investigate \u201chate crimes\u201d, citing its … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poland"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t