Polish PM angers human rights campaigners with plans to shake up NGOs

Beata Szydło’s proposals for new civil society department could let
ministers put pressure on NGOs critical of government

Christian Davies in Warsaw
Monday 28 November 2016 10.09 GMT

The Polish prime minister, Beata Szydło, has angered human rights campaigners by announcing plans for a new department of civil society to centralise state funding and “bring order to the whole sphere of NGOs”.

Too many non-governmental organisations were still “subordinate to the policies of the previous ruling system”, Szydło told reporters last week. She and other senior Polish ministers from the rightwing Law and Justice party were due in London on Monday for talks with the British government.

The move could allow the Polish government to put pressure on NGOs who have criticised ministers over human rights issues.

Activists accused ministers of grandstanding over attacks on Poles in Britain after the 23 June referendum to leave the European Union, while sabotaging efforts to respond to rising levels of hate crime at home.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]