Author of Pole’s Card: Constitutional Court of Belarus is wrong

According to the ruling of the court, the document contradicts the UN Charter, Vienna Declaration, the Polish-Belarusian agreements and “other international legal acts.”

“The opinion of the Constitutional Court is an opinion for domestic consumption,” the head of the legal commission of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Harry Pahanyajla comments on the document. The human rights activist explains that Poland passed the law “On Pole’s Card” as a sovereign state, and Belarusian law-makers would not be able to influence it, Belsat informs.

One of the creators of the Law on the Pole’s Card (Karta Polaka), Michał Dworczak explains that the initiative started to compensate people a loss of Polish citizenship at least morally. As said by him, the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Belarus would not significantly influence issuing of the Pole’s Card. Michał Dworczak reminded that the authorities of Belarus tried to interfere with the functioning of the law from the start: they exerted pressure on people who wanted to receive the document, interfered with coming of Polish consuls engaged in issuing the document.

In the light of the international law, the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Belarus is of no consequence. “While working at the law, we were consulting our neighbours. It had been also analyzed with respect to its compliance with the European law,” Dworczak underlined.