Poland’s embattled commissioner for human rights, Adam Bodnar, marked the end of his term in office yesterday with a warning about the future of Poland’s democracy — and his own institution. Like counterparts across Central and Eastern Europe, known collectively as ombudspersons, Bodnar is an independent government watchdog investigating violations of human rights and the Constitution. This role has made him a target for Poland’s increasingly authoritarian government, part of a pattern threatening institutions that have become a bulwark against democratic backsliding in Europe.

Bodnar, who took office under a previous government in September 2015, brought a legal challenge in 2016 against a new anti-terror law pushed through by the new ruling party, a measure that he said violated constitutional rights to privacy and free expression. Retribution was swift. The ruling Law and Justice party exerted intense political pressure, while the Parliament slashed the office’s budget by 20 percent and changed regulations to make it easier to remove the commissioner’s legal immunity. President Andrzej Duda’s narrow – and challenged — re-election victory on July 12 makes it less likely that any successor to Bodnar could be truly independent, as originally intended. Duda began his second term on Aug. 6.

“The Polish system can no longer be defined as a true constitutional democracy,” Bodnar told Poland’s Senate yesterday in a speech concluding his constitutionally mandated five-year term. “Hostile actions on the part of the government” and rising “political polarization” have stood in the way of his efforts to defend Poles’ fundamental rights, he said.

As the government in Poland pursues an increasingly authoritarian domestic agenda, Bodnar has reported extensively on the ruling party’s assault on the judiciary, restriction of free expression, and dismantling of LGBTQ rights. Simultaneously, Bodnar has raised alarms about a barrage of political pressure on his own office, including harassment via state-controlled media and other efforts to hamper and discredit his work Read more via Just Security