Smolen & Greenpeace Poland v Poland

* Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Case: Jakub Smoleń and Fundacja Greenpeace Polska v Poland
Court: European Court of Human Rights
Applications Nos: 40387/20 and 40754/20
Status: Open

In July 2023, Privacy International intervened in the case of Smolen ao v Poland before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The case concerns the surveillance of activists prior to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was held in Poland in December 2018. In response the activists, who are the applicants in the case, lodged a complaint before the Polish courts alleging the breach of their privacy rights. The Polish courts refused to substantively consider the issues at play on the basis that they were being lawfully monitored by members of the Polish police and internal security force as part of an ongoing investigation. The applicants therefore filed a claim before the ECtHR in which they argued that their right to privacy had been breached without the possibility of accessing an effective remedy to challenge the abuse, contrary to Articles 8 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), respectively.

Our intervention urged the ECtHR to find that there should be a legal presumption against surveilling activists and human rights defenders on the sole basis of their role as such. We further demonstrated how the surveillance technologies deployed by the Polish security and police officials are particularly intrusive and therefore their used requires strict regulation and enhanced safeguards in accordance with Article 8 of the ECHR. GPS trackers, for example that were allegedly used in this case, can track someone’s every move in real time, which in turn can provide the authorities with sensitive data about the individuals they are tracking.

The case was communicated to the Polish government by the Court in January 2023 and the proceedings are ongoing.