In his speech, Deputy Minister Mularczyk talked about the Council of Europe’s actions to support the compensation of war damage and injuries in Europe.

He underlined the most important legal challenges in this area and noted that the European Convention on Human Rights is a fundamental instrument to evaluate human rights violations during a war. The Convention provides for both individual and inter-State applications, thus offering a basic tool to seek compensation on behalf of victims of the violations. Poland, in solidarity with 25 of the Council of Europe members, formally supported Ukraine in the proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights where Kyiv charges Moscow with violations of human rights during Russia’s full-scale aggression that has been going on since February 2022. The deputy head of Polish diplomacy found that in addition to judicial mechanisms ensuring accountability for violations of international law in the context of warfare, there is a need for solutions that practically guarantee the payment of reparations. It should be noted that in May 2023, the Council of Europe established the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine. The parties to the agreement establishing the Register were 40 member states of the Council of Europe, including Poland. The Register was conceived as the first step towards a comprehensive compensation mechanism.

The government plenipotentiary emphasised the active role of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its work on the report on Reparation and reconciliation processes to overcome past conflicts and build a common peaceful future – the question of just and equal redress. The report calls on the establishment in the Council of Europe of a new permanent reconciliation mechanism to deal with problems arising from unregulated historical issues and ongoing conflicts.

Deputy Minister Mularczyk pointed to the unregulated issue of war reparations from Germany. He observed that Poland has a moral mandate to constantly maintain the living memory of the Polish victims of World War II, whose suffering has not been duly redressed. Mindful of its responsibility to the fellow citizens and to history, the Polish government is convinced of a lasting moral and legal obligation to fight for justice even after nearly 80 years since the end of the war. Not only does the lack of compensation cast a shadow over the relations between states, but it also undermines the whole international legal order established after World War II.