A pardon in Polish law vs. the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

The article focuses on the pardon's problem in the context of international standards of human rights protection arising from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In Author's opinion the right of pardon may not be recognized as the human right, apart from exception mentioned in paragraph 6 section 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Only in those circumstances has the condemned (to death) the right to apply for the pardon, the treaty defining human rights and international obligations of state parties therefore expressly demands that such procedure was initiate, although it is not an absolute requirement. If the legislator provide a different opportunity - the right to apply for changing the penalty, the right to apply for pardon might not be provided. In the international standards of human rights protection point of view a condemned might not have right to apply for pardon. If the person is confined for a long-term imprisonment, within life imprisonment, there must be provided a remedy enabling reducing such a penalty, which does not in every case mean an obligation to shorten the period of penalty due to the fact of applying the proper motion. It is important, however, that such a penalty should appear as possible to reduce, so that the condemned was not deprived of any opportunity to leave the place of isolation in earlier time. So, if the national legislation provides an opportunity to apply for penalty change or conditional anticipatory release, a long-term imprisonment penalty may not be treated as inhuman. From this point of view, the right of pardon does not have to be provided by legislation in question, because it is not the only and exclusive remedy for preventing inhuman character of such penalty. Granting only the right to apply for pardon may not be sufficient to recognize that the penalty of long-term imprisonment, within life imprisonment, does not stay in contradiction with humanity. Such an opinion is supported by the character of the pardon's act, the character of the head of state's appreciation, as well as lack of any statutory criteria that should be applied by the head of state in the course of arriving to the decision in this object.