• About the Foundation
• Foundation in 2005
• Our Donors
• The Foundation Council, Board, Program Committees and Staff
• The Batory Foundation Debates
• Civil Society Program
• Third Sector Program
• Legal Education Program
• Anti-Corruption Program
• Equal Opportunities Program
• International Cooperation Program
• Citizens in Action Program
• Community Initiatives Partnership Program
• Twin Cities Program
• East-East Program
• Regional Alcohol and Drug Program
• Grants
• Financial Report 2005

Home page

Annual Report 2005

Legal Education Program

The objective of the Legal Program is to initiate and support activities that increase public legal awareness, promote information on legal issues, develop legal culture, and assist citizens in application of the legal tools to protect their rights.

During 2005, we focused first of all on supporting activities that enhance citizens access to legal knowledge and information, facilitate the application of legal instruments protecting individual interests, and supporting citizens in claiming and executing their rights. We prioritized projects of practical value that provided effective solutions to specific problems of everyday life and focused on initiatives that would help people find their way amongst rules and procedures often perceived by them as confusing, and develop their knowledge and skills that would enable them to use the legal provisions to their best advantage. We made sure that the projects funded by the Legal Education Program were implemented in cooperation with local governments and nongovernmental organization and had a long-term strategy for further development and funding.

The main partners and grantees of the Program were non-governmental organizations that play important role in the application of, and adherence to, legal provisions by both individuals and public bodies in Poland. As a part of our activities aimed at increasing access to legal knowledge and information, we continued to support University Legal Clinics and local Citizens’ Advice Bureaus. The main aim of these organizations is to provide free and impartial information on legal issues, as well as professional advice to individuals facing serious problems. In the case of the Citizens’ Advice Bureaus, this task is carried out by experts who undergo special training; in Legal Clinics the advisors are law students supervised by university teachers or representatives of the legal profession with appropriate experience. In 2005 we awarded grants to 27 Citizens’ Advice Bureaus and subsidized the development and strengthening of the University Legal Clinics network.

We supported activities of the organizations providing legal assistance to people facing serious problems, such as Academia Iuris Foundation which provides counseling for the poor, Silesian Centre for Equal Opportunities from Katowice that runs legal counseling services desks for women, Legal Intervention Association from Warsaw providing legal assistance to mediators, Nobody’s Children Foundation, that assists its dependents in different legal procedures. We funded also development and publication of legal advice booklets prepared by non-governmental organizations, Human Rights Center of Jagiellonian University and Mederi Foundation from Warsaw among them. We continued support for organizations running Youth Civic Rights Academy that offers all-year courses on human and civic rights for secondary school students. In 2005 eight such organizations received grants for their educational activity.

In collaboration with Iustitia Polish Judges Association and the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation we organized, in the framework of Journalist in Court project, last series of meetings for judges and journalists covering court trials. The purpose of those sessions, held since 2001, was to help mutual recognition and better understanding of working conditions of both professional groups, establish contacts, and share experience and opinion. The agenda of all meetings involved an open discussion around topics concerning media-courthouse relations, and mock court trials with roles swapped: journalists took on relevant courthouse parts (judges, prosecutors, attorneys, defendants, and witnesses), whereas judges were responsible for developing press, radio, and TV materials. In 2005 sessions were held in Szczecin and Olsztyn.

With an intent to help the activities aimed to improve the functioning of judiciary we supported in 2005 Ius et Lex Foundation that conducts a research program on judiciary reform and the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies at Wrocław University which organized a conference and workshops on the role of international tribunals.

In 2005, the Program was financed from a grant by Open Society Institute, as well as for 1% personal income tax payments and damage fines adjudged by the court in favor of the Foundation.

Program costs

Grants

Copyright © Fundacja Batorego