Sejm picks Adam Bodnar as new ombudsman
13:17
Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament, has picked Adam Bodnar as a new ombudsman. As many as 239 MPs voted for Bodnar to replace Irena Lipowicz, whose a five-year-long tenure has ended.
"Adam Bodnar already advocates for the freedom and rights of individuals. ... He is not a spokesman for the government, opposition, nor the Episcopate," said MP Robert Maciaszek during a parliamentary debate.
Adam Bodnar is a deputy chair of the board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. In 1999 Bodnar graduated from the Department of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, and completed, in 2000, his LL.M. studies in comparative constitutional law at the Central European University in Budapest. In 2006, he received the title of Doctor of Laws. Between 1999 and 2004, he was employed at the Warsaw office of the law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges. He has been working with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights since November 2004.
