Women’s rights, human rights, democratic values. Dominika Lasota, Barbara Labuda and Dr. Hanna Machińska about 2023

The guests of the New Year’s Eve edition of “Fakty po Faktach” on TVN24 were climate activist from the Wschód Initiative Dominika Lasota, opposition activist in the Polish People’s Republic Barbara Labuda and former deputy Ombudsman Dr. Hanna Machińska. They summarized the past year in terms of the situation of women’s rights and human rightsas well as democratic values.

Labuda assessed that 2023 “was a bad year for women’s rights, but not for women themselves and their political and activist flourishing.” – It was something fantastic. I just can’t get enough of it. I still can’t get enough of it every day that we won thanks to women and young people elections – she said.

– It was just something wonderful. This activism, this commitment, these initiatives, several dozen organizations that worked to increase voter turnout, encouraged women to vote, she added.

According to Labuda, “in 2023, our society, in its majority, passed the test of fantastic values: empathy, compassion, sharing with others, sacrifice.” – It was related to the wave of refugee women and children who came to Poland with this wave before suffering, affected by terrible traumas and misfortunes. And we passed this exam – she emphasized.

– In 2023, we passed the exam – mainly women, but also men, young people – in what? From civic involvement, from the development of political and civic awareness. This is something fantastic – she pointed out.

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According to Machińska, “it was a year of hope.”

However, she added that “what happened was indeed terrible oppression against women.” – Not only towards women. Towards activists. It was something that led us women, especially young women, to take to the streets, she said. She added that young people “saw that they did not want to live in such a country.”

– So when it comes to 2023, it is – today we can say – a year of hope – she said.

She said she looked with pride at young people, but also at “Polish grandmothers who took to the streets in droves.” – Polish grandmothers, whom I greatly appreciated, their commitment. Those that opposed violating the rule of law, she continued. – Today I must say that Polish society has won. Today we are full of hope, she added.

In Lasota’s opinion, “it was an absolutely breakthrough year, after which none of us can say that we have no strength and we do not have the right to vote, because both our strength and our voice are incredibly great and overthrow governments.”

– Because what happened this year is that together we overthrew the United Right government. So I hope that after this year, no one in Poland will have any doubts that change is possible. Change is possible and indeed what happened this year was ours, our victory. And I say ours, because politicians are already (…) shouting over who was the greater father of success. But in this case, there are more mothers, she emphasized.

– I would also like to say that for me, 2023 is not only the year of election victory. Because there were more victories of ordinary people who took matters into their own hands, she emphasized. She cited as an example students’ strike in Poznań, occupying the “Jowita” Student Dormitory. Ultimately, the new Minister of Science, Dariusz Wieczorek, visited the protesters and promised to find money for the renovation of the facility.

According to Lasota, it is “a story about young people taking matters into their own hands and defending what they are entitled to.”

She added that “people are finally realizing that we actually have to fight for these great words, for this democracy and freedom, unfortunately or fortunately, every day.” – But also that we have enormous, enormous power and strength and that we are really able to bring about these great changes – she emphasized.

The program’s guests also talked about the liberalization of abortion.

– This is the right of a woman who may find herself in various situations and it cannot be that the state imposes and limits this choice – said Machińska. She emphasized that this is also “an issue of sexual education, which has been completely eliminated from schools and from various places.” – This is the original sin, I would say, of Minister (Przemysław) Czarnek and, of course, the curators – she continued.

According to her, the last eight years “have been oppression against women.” – As a result, women’s rights and women’s voices have been reduced on various fronts. But women won’t give in to it, she said.

– I often call the right to abortion the right to make a decision – said Labuda, emphasizing that “it is the right to decide about oneself.”

She said that a woman “has the right to decide about herself, just like men.” – Is there any right of citizens and men that is taken away from them by the state and concerns their bodies? – she asked. In her opinion, women’s right to decide about themselves “was usurped by a priest, a policeman, a prosecutor, a judge, a doctor, everyone but the woman.”

When asked if she would like to somehow convince politicians to liberalize the abortion law, Lasota replied: – I am not going to convince anyone to respect me as a human being.

– Because women’s rights are either respected or they are not respected. Human rights are either respected or violated, she added.

– We are used to the fact that politics is concrete. We have been fighting this concrete for eight years. We knew that after the elections this concrete would not disappear. It is clearly the case that Third Way politicians are the concrete ones at the moment on the side of the “October Fifteenth Coalition”. And if you guys think that this concrete will last, they are wrong. We have so much energy, so much enthusiasm, so much strength and patience to protest and fight – also in their regions – for men to finally stand on the side of women, that (…) if they oppose it, we will will be met with our protest, she said.

The participants in the program also talked about changes in public media. Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz dismissed the presidents of the management boards of Telewizja Polska, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency as well as the supervisory boards of these companies. Later he decided to liquidate Polish Television, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency. This occurred – as explained – in connection with the president’s decision to suspend financing of public media.

When asked to comment on Sienkiewicz’s actions, Machińska said that “what we have experienced over the last eight years had nothing to do with pluralism, with public media.” – It was destruction, systematic destruction of us, people, society, because lies were perpetrated – she argued. She added that “hate speech was an everyday occurrence.” – Anyway, just look and listen to the voice OSCE during the last elections. The OSCE clearly said that these public media did not fulfill this role, that these public media, and this is my addition, caused enormous polarization, deep polarization of Polish society – she continued.

– Today I can say that Minister Sienkiewicz made a very brave decision. In my opinion, what matters is the text and the context. The text – I am talking about the law, and the context – that is, we cannot abstract from what the public media, the so-called public media, were. Therefore, it was the only solution that could be used, she said.

She admitted that “a certain pretext was, of course, what the president did, who refused to provide financial resources for public media.” – Therefore, ownership rights were used. I don’t see any contradiction here, she admitted.

She pointed out that “therefore, today we are in a situation where we have to rebuild public media, which are to become public.” – Legal regulations must serve this purpose. I believe that Minister Sienkiewicz used the appropriate legal regulations, she said.

Labuda also spoke positively about Sienkiewicz’s actions. She also assessed that politicians PIS “they defend party television, they defend the party apparatus against people, against citizens.” – There is no consent to this. What could have been done in such a situation? The kind of mess introduced by PiS and lawlessness? You could only cut it. And Mr. Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, I think, made a very brave and sensible decision. The least harmful and effective – she added.

Lasota expressed a different opinion. – I don’t know whether the change in the public media made in such a way, at such a pace, will make people who have been watching this TV every day for the last eight years – not leave it despite this propaganda, but actually stay and be attracted, chained to this television, just convinced by the previous team – I don’t know to what extent they will now want to show the news, or even a new news program, at 7:30 p.m. And to what extent will they simply give up and stop watching these public media and look for other channels – she said.