Poland

In September 2024, the National Police Headquarters' Criminal Office organized a briefing devoted to the issue of bias-motivated crimes. The briefing was attended by representatives of: Criminal Office of the National Police Headquarters; Ministry of Interior and Administration; National Prosecutor's Office; Regional Prosecutor's Offices; Plenipotentiary of the Commander-in-Chief of the Police for Human Rights Protection; Central Office for Combating Cybercrime; barristers; representatives of Police schools; and heads of unit, together with co-ordinators on hate crimes who work in individual police garrisons. During the briefing, a wide array of issues was discussed, including: the interpretation of the constituent elements of bias-motivated crimes; the capabilities to detect perpetrators in cooperation with online platforms; as well as issues related to international obligations to prosecute and combat hate crimes.

In 2024, representatives of the Police, including the co-ordinators on hate crimes, participated in various conferences, government meetings, including the conference of the "Freedom Time" Foundation organized by the Ministry of Interior and Administration, and entitled: "Challenges of the 21st century – hate speech and crime in cyberspace".

On 12 June 2024, the Prosecutor General appointed a team of advisers on counteracting hate speech and bias-motivated crimes, tasked with drafting a systemic, comprehensive, and detailed strategy for counteracting and punishing hate speech and bias-motivated crimes. The team consists of prosecutors, academics, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, and lawyers.

Poland has developed a bill amending the Penal Code that aims to strengthen criminal law protection against discriminatory grounds for conduct on the basis of disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The bill was adopted by the Council of Ministers, and the Sejm passed it on 6 March 2025. However, the Act has not entered into force because it has been referred to the Constitutional Tribunal by the President under the preventive review procedure.

Significant changes in the field of combating hate speech on the Internet have been proposed in the draft law amending the Act on the provision of electronic services and certain other acts. The draft law foresees, among other things, that the President of the Office of Electronic Communications 'blocks' illegal content on the Internet at the request of the person whose interest has been violated, or at the request of the Police or the prosecutor - if the dissemination of illegal content bears the hallmarks of a prohibited act or of a content praising or inciting to commit a prohibited act (as per Article 11a of the draft law).