The conference will be conducted in English and Polish. Translation in both directions will be provided.
online event
The Ministry of Justice
of the Republic of Poland
Ombudsman for Children
Mikołaj Pawlak
In many countries, the development of the welfare state has not only responded to the problems of groups requiring support, but also unexpectedly created new challenges for the proper functioning of society. This situation is also the result of distant changes in economic relations and related lifestyle changes in the societies of most countries of the world.
First, urbanization and industrialization resulted in the reconstruction of a traditional three-generation family model. Migrations to cities were associated with leaving the oldest members of the family – mostly people in the working age were migrating. From such an atomized society a nuclear family emerged – consisting of two working adults and children born in the city. Due to much worse housing conditions and the gradual becoming of such a family form a cultural norm, the next generations also lived in nuclear families – seniors separately from working age people and children.
Then economic realities, forcing women to work, and not just leaving the right to work it in the sphere of individual choice, caused a weakening of fertility and further reduction of intergenerational contacts and contacts between generations.
European countries, where this process have started, respond to the needs of such a rebuilt society with various forms of institutional assistance – people whose work does not allow daily care for their offspring are offered nurseries and kindergartens, older people deprived from natural care of the family can count on assistance in the nursing homes. Apart from the fact that solutions of this type are only a prosthesis of family care, it should be noted that the mass use of their offer preserves the civilization changes leading to the further disappearance of basic interpersonal bonds. Recent events related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic have shown that changes in the natural patterns of family functioning can have far-reaching consequences in completely different areas, such as health. Nursing homes and other institutions for the elderly have become the places most affected by the epidemic in many countries due to the gathering of people from the most vulnerable group in one place, in a small area.
It seems, therefore, that we are in the right moment to determine appropriate paths for the development of assistance mechanisms.
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11.15 – Panel 1: Small children care support: how much of institutions, how much of the family?
The first three years of a child's life are indicated by many researchers as a period of fundamental importance for his/her development. It is also a time of special challenges for the parents. In the perspective of changes in the family structure, especially those related to the transition from a multi-generational family model to a nuclear family, it is necessary for the state to conduct a reasonable and balanced policy aimed at supporting parents. The question of an efficient, tailored to the needs of parents and their children model of childcare is particularly relevant today, in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may, according to forecasts of scientists take up to two years. The etatist model of care for a small child, which dominates in many countries, including Poland, assuming taking care of the widest possible number of children, does not work today. This is not only because of its apparent failure due to the pandemic and the resulting sanitary and epidemiological threat. The lack of flexibility and respect for the individual needs of parents and their children has long been pointed out as one of the main problems of this system. The current situation may be an excuse to permanently revise the approach to supporting parents in the care of young children by the state. It seems that it is the policy based on deformalizing forms of care and giving parents the decision-making power to choose the best model for it is a response to today's challenges and a way to avoid the collapse of the entire system. The aim of this panel will be to present the best experiences of European countries regarding effective and subjective family policy.
12.35 – Panel 2: Elderly and disabled care: towards deinstitutionalisation
In the face of the progressing aging of the society, sketching and implementing a coherent and consistent senior policy should be a priority for state action in the social, health and economic area.
The issue requiring addressing is determining whether such actions should be implemented by institutions directly or whether institutions should only provide support for the family in strengthening its capacities.
13.55 – Panel 3: When can the state interfere with family life? Practice of institutions established to protect children and oversee the proper functioning of the family
The weakening of the social and economic role of the family often leads to a situation in which the family becomes dependent on state care, becoming at the same time subject to abuse by public institutions. Such a situation is not uncommon in countries basing their social policy on the welfare state model - in Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom. Unjustified interference in family life, most often consisting in depriving parents of custody of children, and consequently the loss of parental rights and forced adoption, often leads to a permanent distribution of ties between children and parents, reconciling both the right to respect for the family life of children and their parents, as well as the principle of protecting the child's best interests.
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Željka Markić - Leader of Croatian right-wing movement "On Behalf of the Family" (U ime obitelji). One of the key organisers of the 2013 Croatian constitutional referendum for which civic initiative U ime obitelji (In the Name of Family) had collected 749,613 signatures. Founder of Croatian subsidiary of Mary's Meals organisation.
dr Imre Balásházy – DSc, physicist, founder and currently vice-president of the Family Science Alliance in Hungary, founder and first president of the Science for the Family Association, secretary of the European Family Science Society, founder and chairman of the editorial board of the European Family Sciences Journal, head of the Family and Demography Working Group in the Batthyány Society of Professors.
Anna Jackowska - Lawyer, graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration and Italian at the University of Warsaw. Analyst at the Center for International Law of the Ordo Iuris Institute.
prof. Piotr Szukalski – sociologist, habilitated doctor, professor at the University of Lodz. His research interests are issues from the intersection of demography, social gerontology and social policy, and the subject of his research are primarily: the course of the aging process of the Polish population, taking into account the dual nature of the process and its consequences, transformation of the Polish family model and intergenerational relations at both the micro and macro level.
prof. Angela Gandra – Secretary for the Family at the Ministry of Family and Human Rights in Brazil. Lawyer and attorney. Professor at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.
Dr Valeriu Ghiletchi – member of the parliament of Moldova and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, author of the report Striking a balance between the best interest of the child and the need to keep families together, which became the basis for the adoption of Resolution 2232 (2018) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe under the same title;
Leo van Doesburg – Director of Political Affairs of the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM);
Dr Sławomir Kowalski – Vice-director in the Department for Cooperation with Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad, former Consul of the Republic of Poland in Norway, actively involved in helping Polish families whose children were unjustly taken by the Norwegian Children's Authority (Barnevernet);
Paweł Wdówik - Secretary of State at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, Government Plenipotentiary for Disabled People.
ATTORNEY JERZY KWAŚNIEWSKI - Lawyer. Co-founder and President of the Management Board of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture. Partner at the law firm of Parchimowicz & Kwaśniewski.
In his law practice, Jerzy Kwaśniewski focuses on the protection of civil rights and freedoms, rights of the family and children's rights. He has represented citizens and civil organizations in numerous precedent-setting cases before national and international courts and tribunals, as well as in consultations at the invitation of international bodies such as the Venice Commission and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE. Jerzy Kwaśniewski advises national and international associations, foundations, co-operatives and entrepreneurs’ organizations and has supported the formation of numerous civil organizations participating in public debates in the field of human rights. Until 2017, Jerzy Kwaśniewski was the President of the Management Board of the Polish Wine Council.
The architect and first director of the Ordo Iuris Institute Litigation Department, which yearly provides pro bono legal assistance in several hundred cases crucial for the protection of the rights of families and children, freedom of conscience and conscientious objection, freedom of speech of prolife campaigners, and the rights of those persecuted because of their attachment to the principles of the natural social order confirmed in the Polish Constitution.
Jerzy Kwaśniewski has been appointed to the advisory councils of four Ministers of Justice, including the Council for the Implementation of the Strategy of Modernization of the Judiciary in Poland and the Council for the Protection of Family Autonomy and Family Life. Member and secretary of the governmental Monitoring Council for the Prevention of Domestic Violence in the 3rd term of office from 2017. In 2016, deputy representative of the "Stop Abortion" Legislative Initiative Committee. Member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars since 2017. In March 2019, appointed by the Polish Episcopal Conference to the Council of the Bona Fama Foundation.
He and his wife have five children.
TYMOTEUSZ ZYCH PH. D. - Doctor of laws, academic lecturer, Vice-President of the Board of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, a human rights think tank based in Warsaw. Vice-president of the Non-Governmental Initiatives Confederation, an independent network of organizations representing the civil society.
He received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw. Graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw and the Inter-University Individual Studies in Humanities of Artes Liberales Academy, the latter pursued at both the University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. His book on legal certainty was awarded in the "Monographies" competition of the Foundation for Polish Science.
Tymoteusz Zych has authored numerous expert reports, legal opinions and academic papers in the field of human rights protection, family law, constitutional law and public international law. His opinions and expert reports have been used in the legislative process and accepted by both Polish and foreign courts and tribunals as well as international judicial Institutions. He has also drafted legal acts on the request of both public authorities and civil organizations.
Zych has been appointed as an expert in numerous bodies consulting on public policy. He has served as a member of consultative boards at the Ministry of Justice under four ministers of different political affiliations. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Family Life and Family Autonomy Council at the Ministry of Justice. Thanks to support from more than 25 NGOs, he has also been nominated to the council of the National Freedom Institute, which consults public policy regarding civil organizations. He is also formally consulted by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology.
He has provided expertise in the field of human rights and the rule of law on the request of, among others, the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the LIBE and AFCO Commissions of the European Parliament, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Venice Commission and the United States Department of State.
KAROLINA PAWŁOWSKA - Director of the Center of International Law of Ordo Iuris Institute. Ph.D. student at the Department of Sociology of Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw. Author of numerous scientific articles on the history of political and legal doctrines, sociology of law, demography and international law. A graduate of an academic internship at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.
FILIP FURMAN - Director of the Bioethics Center in Ordo Iuris, sociologist, graduate of the University of Warsaw and Beijing Language and Culture University. He has gained experience at the Ministry of Health and in non-governmental organizations dealing with the broadly understood area of health from both the scientific and systemic side. Professionally involved in bioethics, health sociology and public health.
Bartosz Zalewski - Attorney-at-law, analyst at the Ordo Iuris Institute and the Hipolit Cegielski Analysis Center. Graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. Researcher and lecturer at the Chair of Legal-Political Doctrines and Roman Law at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. At present, preparing a doctoral dissertation on Roman law. Author of publications on Roman law and history of law. His professional interests in contemporary law are focused on comparative law, civil and administrative law and human rights. During his studies he was engaged in activities providing free legal assistance for persons in difficult life situations
Michał A. Michalski (born 1975), Ph.D. hab. prof. of Adam Mickiewicz University - researcher in cultural studies, economics, ethics and family studies. Associate Professor at the Business Ethics Department of the Institute of Cultural Studies of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. President of the Institute for Family and Society Studies Foundation, member of Family Council at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy and of the Family Council at the voivodeship of Wielkopolska Region. Member of Polish Association of Business Ethics EBEN Poland, Polish Economic Society, Polish Cultural Studies Society and Fellow of the European SPES Institute. In 2003 he defended his doctoral thesis titled The Cultural Dimension of Human Work (published in 2005). In 2014 he published a habilitation monograph titled The Importance of the Family for the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Culture. Research interests: economic culture and ethics, family and economy, social policy, welfare state, human work.
Balázs Molnár a lawyer, diplomat, married and a father of three children. He is Vice President for Strategy and Coordination of the Mária Kopp Institute for Demography and Families since November 2018. Prior his current position he was Deputy State Secretary for European Union Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office, social attaché at the Permanent representation of Hungary to the EU in Brussels, presidency diplomat at the Permanent Mission of Hungary to the UN in Vienna and held several positions in the predecessors of the Ministry for Human Capacities.
Robert Wyszyński - a sociologist specializing in the field of sociology of culture. His interests include the transformation of the hospice movement and palliative care institutions in Poland, euthanasia problems. He conducted long-term research among deportees in Kazakhstan, a member of the Repatriation Council. Researcher of Siberian peoples. Former director of the Borderland Institute in Warsaw. A graduate of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Warsaw, where he also obtained his doctorate.
Einar Columbus Salvesen – Norwegian psychologist defending victims of the Barnevernet interventions.
László Márki - Mathematician, research professor emeritus. 1992–96 Vice President of the European Mathematical Society. 1996–2000 Vice President, 2000–2004 President of the National Association of Large Families (Hungary).
2004–2014 Vice President, 2014-2018 President, since 2018 Honorary President of the European Large Families Confederation.
Steven Bennett – author of the book Stolen Childhood. The truth about Norway's child welfare system, in which he describes the abuses commiting by the Norwegian Child Welfare Office (Barnevernet).
Dorota Bojemska - Chairwoman of the Family Council at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, activist for the defense of the family, mother of eight children, chairwoman of the Association of Large Families 3+ in Józefów.