We are pleased to announce that Maciej Nowicki, the co-founder and Director of the WATCH DOCS Festival, has been appointed the President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights!

After more than ten years as President of the Board, and after more than thirty years of working for the Foundation, Danuta Przywara, co-creator of the HFHR, moves to the Board of Directors, where she becomes Chair, replacing Professor Janusz Grzelak. As of 15 June, Maciej Nowicki, the former Vice-President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, will assume the position of President of the Board.

Danuta Przywara acted as the President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights since 2008; she was also a co-founder of the Foundation in 1989. In the 1980s, she was an active member of the Solidarity underground, and in 1982 she became one of the organizers of technical support for the authors of a report on the observance of human rights in the People's Republic of Poland (the so-called Madrid Report), who established the Helsinki Committee at the beginning of 1983. She was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Bene Merito badge of honor and the "Meritorious for the Judiciary - Bene Merentibus Iustitiae" medal.

From mid-June 2021, the position of the President of the HFHR will be assumed by Maciej Nowicki, co-founder and Director of the largest HFHR project promoting human rights - the WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film International Film Festival. The position of the Vice-President of the Foundation is assumed by Dr Piotr Kladoczny, head of the Foundation's legal programs and hitherto Secretary of the Board. Lenur Kerymov, head of the Foundation's human rights programs in the former Soviet Union, remains in the position of Treasurer of the Board. In 2021, Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska completed her five-year term as a Member of the Board.

The Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is also joined by Małgorzata Szuleka, a lawyer, who is responsible for international advocacy and research at the Foundation (new Board Secretary), and Aleksandra Iwanowska, PhD, an expert in HFHR projects conducted in the countries of the former USSR (new Board Member).

Ms Przywara, we would like to thank you, for all your years of service to the Board and your contribution to the development of the idea of human rights in Poland and the knowledge about them. We also thank the remaining members of the Board and congratulate the newly elected members!