Department of Human Rights
Staff structure:
Prof. Dr. hab. Bożena Gronowska – Head of the Department
Dr. Piotr Chrzczonowicz – assistant professor
Dr. Julia Kapelańska-Pregowska – assistant professor
Dr. Piotr Sadowski – assistant professor
Main fields of common research activity:
international and domestic protection of human rights; theory of international obligations of the state in the field of human rights; international responsibility of the state for violations of treaty commitments; domestic impact of international human rights case-law (comparative approach).
Individual profiles:
Prof. Dr. hab. Bożena Gronowska
Author of over 200 different scientific publications in the following fields: criminal procedure, criminology, victimology, penitentiary law, and human rights protection.
(A detailed list of publications available on the Polish website of the Scholar)
Expert of Legal Office of Senate of the Parliament of the 1st term of office of the Polish Republic ; in 2000-2002 a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Advisory Group on Human Rights. In 2004-2006 member of the EU Programme EQUAL for Poland.
Vice-dean for International Relations of the Faculty of Law and Administration on Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń during three terms of office: 2006-2008; 2009-2011; 2016-2020). During 1997-2005 university coordinator for ECTS implementation; during 2016-2020 Faculty Coordinator for the Quality Assessment of Education.
From 2016 a member of the Board of the International Commission of Lawyers – Polish Section. Member of scientific boards of several academic Polish law journals.
Dr. Julia Kapelańska-Pręgowska
. Fields of research: international human rights law; human rights and bioethics
(A detailed list of publications available on the Polish website of the Scholar)
Other activities:
In 2006-2007 – a trainee at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union at the Legal advisers group I. Participation in international courses on human rights protection (at the Viadrina University and at the L’Insitut de Droits de L’homme in Strasburg). Speaker at conferences in Poland and abroad (Scotland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Belgium).
Member of the International Law Association (Polish Branch) and of the European Association of Health Law. Member of the editorial board of “Comparative Law Review”. Certified national tutor of HELP Program (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) of the Council of Europe. Coach of the NCU Team participating at the European Human Rights Moot Court Competitions.
Scholarships/research grants:
- scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science (2014)
- the Bohdan Winiarski Scholarship in International Law 2017 (scholarship for a research project to be conducted at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge)
- Research grant MINIATURA 1 funded by the Polish National Science Center (2018)
Dr. Piotr Sadowski
Main focus of research activity : the analysis of the conformity of the EC/EU asylum and return policies standards with the international law (the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention); a judicial dialogue between Luxembourg (CJEU) and Strasbourg Tribunals (ECtHR); impact of the ECtHR’s jurisprudence on issued by the CJEU decisions; protection of illegal immigrants with special reference to “administrative detention”.
(A detailed list of publications available on the Polish website of the Scholar)
Grants and other activities:
During the hitherto academic career realization of two research grants from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
Member of the Editorial Board and a Secretary responsible for international affairs of the academic quarterly “State and Local Government Budget Law”.
Full academic profiles of Piotr Sadowski are available at:
Academia.edu: https://torun-pl.academia.edu/PiotrSadowski
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=Emfo2MgAAAAJ&hl=pl
International cooperation:
The Department cooperates on a regular basis with scientific academic centres in Ukraine (Odessa, Kiev), USA (Chicago), Italy (Rome). In effect of cooperation with the two latter partners, the Department organizes each year a Polish-American symposium “Human Rights and a Just Society” (until 2018, there have been 14 editions of the event). Additionally, every member of the Department has own international scientific partners and contacts with many international institutions.
The Department is an official member of Association of Human Rights Institutions (AHRI). The organization consists of over 60 member institutions from over 30 countries from Europe and other regions of the world.