1
The Ordo Iuris Institute has submitted more than 10,000 signatures on the “Let Us Defend Sovereignty” petition to the Chancellery of the President of Poland.
2
The petition calls on President Karol Nawrocki to veto the act on the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), passed by the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, on September 4 and adopted by the Senate on September 24, 2026.
3
The act provides for no mechanism to examine whether judgments of the Strasbourg Court are consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
4
In 2024, Poland ranked seventh among the 46 member states of the Council of Europe in terms of executing ECtHR judgments, which, according to the authors of the petition, calls into question the need for the new regulation.
More than 10,000 people have signed the “Let Us Defend Sovereignty” petition, in which citizens appeal to Polish President Karol Nawrocki to veto the act requiring Polish authorities and courts to execute judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unconditionally. The petition was launched by the Ordo Iuris Institute. Taking part in the delivery of the signatures were Marcin Perłowski, Vice President of Ordo Iuris and Director of the Center for Life and Family, and Jędrzej Jabłoński, an analyst at Ordo Iuris.
The Sejm passed the act on the execution of ECtHR judgments on September 4, 2026, and the Senate adopted it on September 24 (60 votes in favor, 29 against). The act entrusts the coordination of the execution of the Court’s judgments to Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Within three months of a judgment becoming final, the competent institutions are to prepare an action plan and, if the judgment requires changes to the law, to present a draft of those changes within one year.
The authors of the petition warn that the act obliges the Polish authorities to execute the rulings of a foreign court “without scrutiny, without objection, without the right to refuse.” The new provisions do not provide for any mechanism that would make it possible to verify whether a given ECtHR judgment is consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The petition also recalls that Poland’s National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ) issued a negative opinion on the draft on June 26, 2025. According to the NCJ, the draft was inconsistent with more than a dozen provisions of the Constitution. The signatories further emphasize that the act is unnecessary. In 2024, Poland ranked seventh among the 46 member states of the Council of Europe in terms of executing the Court’s judgments.
In his commentary “The Sejm Strikes at Poland’s Independence! We Cannot Allow It,” Ordo Iuris President Jerzy Kwaśniewski warned that “the government wants to limit its own sovereignty.” He also pointed out that, on the basis of the ECtHR’s existing case law, Poland could be forced to broaden the legal grounds for abortion and to recognize same-sex unions.
See also:
- Slovakia Does Not Have to Recognize a Same-Sex “Marriage” Contracted in the United Kingdom. Ordo Iuris Opinion for the ECtHR
- The Sejm Strikes at Poland’s Independence! We Cannot Allow It
- President Nawrocki Vetoes Act on Same-Sex Partnerships in Poland
- Rewriting Rights? The ECHR’s Shift Away from the European Convention’s Text on Same-Sex Unions, Immigration, and the Judiciary
- The ECHR Ruling Does Not Challenge Poland’s Ban on Eugenic Abortion, Only the Way It Was Introduced
Source of cover photo: Tomasz Daniluk / Ordo Iuris
