The article discusses the point of interconnection between historical policy and international human rights law standards on the example of a so-called decommunisation Act enacted in Poland in 2016 that reduces retirement pensions and other benefits to individuals who were employed or in service in selected state formations and institutions in 1944-1990, amending the Act adopted in 2009. The Act of 16 December 2016 is analyzed in the light of the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including relevant standards on coming to terms with the past as an element of transitional justice. The examination concludes that there is a discrepancy between the rationale for adopting this legislation in Poland, namely to reckon with the communist past and as such increase social trust in state institutions, and the legal solutions contained in the 2016 Act.
This article attempts to examine and define the functions and character of the periodicals and other press publications of Polish Eastern Borderlands community functioning in the structures of the Polish war refugees and post-war political emigration in the West. The author presents the origins and the various phases of its history, including the phase of its inexorable decline. In a series of concise individual profiles the article covers all printed materials that can be classified as the press publications of the Polish Eastern Borderlands community.