Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity

and of the equal and inalienable rights

of all members of the human family

is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world …

 

               (Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10th, 1948)

 

 

In 2009, the Department of Human Rights (currently the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law) was established at the Faculty of Law, Canon Law and Administration. From its inception, the Department has been headed by Prof. Krzysztof Orzeszyna, PhD, DSc.

ks-_orzeszyna

Scientific research conducted at the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law focuses on the analysis of human rights protection systems, individual subjective rights, international humanitarian law, and the legal aspects of security—including cybersecurity—from the perspective of international, European, supranational, and domestic law.

 

Initially, the academic staff included

Dr. Michał Skwarzyński

and Dr. Robert Tabaszewski.

Currently, the academic staff consists of Prof. Sławomir Łukasiewicz, PhD, DSc,

and Prof. Luc Reydams, PhD.

The main directions of research conducted include:

1. Human rights protection systems

  • the universal system of human rights protection within the framework of the United Nations;

  • the protection of human rights within the framework of the Council of Europe, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe;

  • the Polish national system of human rights protection in relation to supranational systems;

  • non-European systems of human rights protection.

2. Individual subjective rights

  • the catalogue of individual rights protected under the universal human rights protection system;

  • the catalogue of individual rights protected under European and supranational human rights protection systems (Council of Europe, OSCE, European Union);

  • the catalogue of individual rights and freedoms protected under national human rights protection systems, in particular the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997;

  • proceedings before human rights protection bodies in national, European, and international systems.

3. International humanitarian law

  • protection of persons and property during international and non-international armed conflicts;

  • the legal status of participants in armed conflicts and of persons not taking part in hostilities;

  • the relationship between international humanitarian law and international human rights law;

  • implementation and application of norms of international humanitarian law in domestic law and in the practice of states and international organizations.

4. Security and cybersecurity law

  • legal aspects of state security and international security in the context of human rights protection;

  • protection of individual rights and freedoms in situations of security threats, states of emergency, and crises;

  • cybersecurity law, including the protection of human rights in cyberspace;

  • prevention of cyber threats and the responsibility of states and other entities for violations of law in cyberspace.

History of the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

The Department of Human Rights was established by a resolution of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Law, Canon Law and Administration of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin on 25 January 2009. Previously, issues related to human rights were addressed within the Department of Church Public and Constitutional Law, where Krzysztof Orzeszyna was a faculty member from 1999 to 2009. The research conducted at that time focused, among other things, on issues of religious freedom in the member states of the European Union. Activities within the Department of Human Rights formally commenced on 1 October 2009 (academic year 2009/2010). The first Head of the Department of Human Rights was Rev. Prof. Krzysztof Orzeszyna, PhD, DSc, a specialist in human rights and European Union law.

In its new structure, as the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, it has functioned since 1 October 2019, pursuant to Ordinance No. ROP-0101-92/19 of the Rector of the Catholic University of Lublin dated 2 September 2019, concerning the transformation of the Department of Human Rights and the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Law, Canon Law and Administration.

The Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Faculty of Law, Canon Law and Administration continues, in the field of scientific research on human rights and methods of their protection, the best traditions of outstanding legal scholars of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, respecting and creatively developing the achievements of the pioneers of the Lublin School of Human Rights: Rev. Prof. Franciszek Mazurek, PhD, DSc, and Prof. Hanna Waśkiewicz, PhD, DSc.

Rev. Professor Franciszek Mazurek (1933–2009), a theoretician of personal human rights, served as Head of the Department of Catholic Social Teaching and Social and Economic Ethics at KUL. He was a widely recognized and respected specialist who proclaimed the universal truth of integral human rights, deriving their nature from the dignity of the human person. Rev. Prof. Mazurek distinguished human rights from the methods of their protection. He held that human rights are indivisible and that there are many ways of pursuing them, both legal and non-legal. He gained broad international recognition among political scientists, sociologists, and legal scholars. His works were published in respected academic journals in German, French, and English. He also served in numerous national and international scholarly bodies.

Professor Hanna Waśkiewicz (1919–1993), a researcher and highly regarded academic teacher in the fields of philosophy of law, natural law, and human rights, served as Head of the Department of Sociology of Law and Morality at KUL until 1993. She began her academic career at the University of Warsaw but later permanently affiliated herself with KUL. Her philosophy of human rights, ranging from natural law through the sociology of law and human rights, forms a coherent and logically complete system of thought. Prof. Waśkiewicz maintained that natural law has a legal character and is neither an unattainable ideal nor merely a set of moral norms. She remains one of the most inspiring figures in Polish human rights scholarship.

In light of these distinguished research traditions, human dignity has been adopted as the point of departure and guiding principle for research conducted at the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. The Department’s staff recognize human dignity as a fundamental norm (lex fundamentalis) and the source of all human rights and freedoms. The Department’s motto is drawn from the Preamble to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reads: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world (…)”.

The founder and Head of the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is Rev. Prof. Krzysztof Orzeszyna, PhD, DSc, who holds a habilitated doctorate in legal sciences, specializing in European Union law. From 1984 to 1990, he studied at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków, earning a Master’s degree in theology. Between 1992 and 1995, he completed specialist studies in canon law at the Catholic University of Lublin, obtaining the degree of licentiate on the basis of a thesis entitled The Pastoral Character of the Diocesan Curia, supervised by Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Pieronek. Subsequently, from 1994 to 2000, he pursued specialist studies in law, earning a Master’s degree in law with a thesis entitled Religious Freedom in the Light of International Documents: Universal and European, supervised by Prof. Anna Przyborowska-Klimczak. In the years 1996–1998, as a recipient of a French government scholarship, he pursued doctoral studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris. On 26 September 2000, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Legal Sciences on the basis of a dissertation entitled The Office of the Episcopal Vicar in the Universal Law of the Latin Church, supervised by Prof. Józef Krukowski, with reviews by Prof. Antoni Dębiński and Prof. Józef Wroceński. On 4 November 2008, he obtained the degree of Doctor Habilitatus in legal sciences, specializing in European Union law.

Rev. Prof. Krzysztof Orzeszyna is also a highly regarded legal practitioner. Alongside his academic work at KUL, he serves as a canon lawyer at the Metropolitan Tribunal in Częstochowa. From 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2016, he was also a professor at the National Defence University in Warsaw. Between 2014 and 2017, he represented the Polish Bishops’ Conference in the legal working group of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in Brussels. He is the author and co-author of over one hundred academic publications and the initiator of several dozen research projects. He has supervised more than one hundred master’s theses and six doctoral dissertations in the field of human rights and their protection.

At the beginning of the 2011/2012 academic year, Michał Skwarzyński joined the Department. Under the supervision of Rev. Prof. Krzysztof Orzeszyna, he prepared and defended a doctoral dissertation entitled The Specific Nature of the Human Right to Intellectual Property and the Limits of Its Inheritance in the Polish Legal Order. The dissertation addressed issues related to the human rights system, including the human right to intellectual property and the human right to inheritance, as well as civil law issues concerning the inheritance of copyright. The central thesis asserted the existence of a specific human right to intellectual property and a specific human right to inherit intellectual property. The analysis focused on the fate of an author’s moral rights after death. In 2012, Dr. Michał Skwarzyński was awarded the degree of Doctor of Legal Sciences, specializing in human rights, and was admitted to the Bar of the Lublin Bar Association. He is currently an assistant professor, Secretary of the Department, academic advisor to second-year law students, a respected attorney-at-law, owner of a law firm, and a member of the KUL expert team.

In 2016, the Department was further expanded with the appointment of Dr. Robert Tabaszewski. Between 2011 and 2015, under the supervision of Rev. Prof. Krzysztof Orzeszyna, he participated in the Interfaculty Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies (MISH), acquiring specialized competencies as an innovation broker, and subsequently prepared his doctoral dissertation. His dissertation, entitled The Right to Health and Its Place in Human Rights Protection Systems, was defended on 22 September 2018 and concerned the specific nature of the human right to health and the possibilities of its legal enforcement. From 2011 to 2015, he served for three terms as Chair of the Doctoral Students’ Council and Senator of KUL. Since 2015, he has been an attorney-at-law and a member of the Lublin Bar Association. Currently, Dr. Robert Tabaszewski is an assistant professor, Secretary of the Faculty Council, and academic supervisor of the Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Section of the Law Students’ Scientific Association.

 

 

The aim of the research conducted at the Department of Human Rights is to identify the specific characteristics of particular human rights systems, i.e. the universal system, continental systems, and national systems, within the human rights protection framework from the perspective of their effectiveness. Generational differences in this area determine a completely different level of effectiveness of the human rights system. The research is carried out against the background of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the human rights protection system implemented by the Council of Europe, as well as the European Union protection system and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, it is necessary to link effective mechanisms for the protection of human rights in Europe with the less efficient universal system or with other continental systems