During the reporting period The Women's Rights Center continued to implement its various programs and launched several new projects and campaigns. It has strengthened its position among Women's organizations and other social and governmental institutions in Poland and internationally and become widely known to the public at large. The Women's Rights Center has a highly regarded status as an advocacy and public interest law organization and is a nationally known provider of legal and psychological services for battered women.

The Center has continued its advocacy activities in order to influence legal and policy changes to ensure equal opportunities and equal rights for men and women. We have also actively participated in the meetings of NGOs with Women's Parliamentary Caucus and have been invited to parliamentary commission's hearings. As a respected NGO we have been repeatedly asked by the legislators to deliver our opinion on various issues concerning women. Although our effort to introduce legal provision, which would allow expelling the perpetrator of violence from the house, was not fully successful it certainly had a big impact on social awareness. It has also resulted in the more creative use of the existing law. Recently, several prosecutors successfully delivered an order for the perpetrator not to approach a victim. The issue was discussed in the media and the Center was asked several times for its opinion by TV stations and journalists. We continue our effort to introduce restraining order into the Polish legal system, if possible, through the adoption of a comprehensive law on violence in intimate relationships. We have some hope for such a legislative initiative because minister of justice in its recent statement stated that he see as unjust the situation that a perpetrator stay in the house while a woman with children have to seek shelter.

The Women's Rights Center is going to actively participate in the "16 days campaign against violence against women". Thanks to the grant received from the OSI Women's Network Program we have produced posters and TV and radio spots, which will be used during the campaign. The WRC is also working on the WWW site about violence against women.

The WRC is also a well-known editor. Its publications, including legal manuals, "Law and Gender" quarterly and various reports have been highly evaluated and widely distributed. The Ministry of Justice declares the interest to order and distribute among judges our publication on the European Union gender equality legislation and jurisprudence.

The Women's Rights Center serves as a respected provider of training on violence against women for law enforcement and criminal justice professionals. In November we were hired by the Ombudsman for Victims Rights to train its staff members and representatives. There are many request from our trainees not only to continue our training but also to organize the follow-up "train the trainer" workshops.

The number of women who profit from our services is steadily growing. In the reporting period, the WRC succeeded to receive other funding to expend its services and activities. For example, thanks to the Batory Foundation and local government grants, Women Rights Center was able to provide legal and psychological services to a large number of women and to open a shelter for battered women. Twice a week we offer legal counseling by telephone and once a week we organize open educational meetings from the "Learn your rights" series. In response to the needs of our clients, the Women's Rights Center is expending its victim assistance program and plans to develop criminal courts monitoring program. The WRC is developing its public interest law cases by getting involved in some selected cases and paying for legal representation.

The Women's Human Rights School program aimed at training Women's rights advocates should be considered very successful. We have managed to create a network of qualified Women's rights advocates who are ready to assist women, whose rights were violated. There is certainly a need for a follow up in order to reach new individuals and groups to join the network. It is only through networking and cooperation, that we can advance Women's human rights and gender equality.

The WRC is expending its activities also by creating branch offices in many parts of Poland. We opened our offices in ŁódŸ, Częstochowa, Gdańsk, Kraków and Warka. There are more requests from individuals and groups wishing to become a part of the WRC network. In our opinion, regional development of the well-established NGOs, such as the WRC, leads towards the strengthening of the Women's movement in Poland. In our opinion, newly established initiatives should learn from the experienced organizations to be more effective in their work for the advancement of Women's human rights.

The WRC is also about to start its new project called "Women's rights on the move", which is aimed at reaching new communities especially in small towns and villages. It will certainly contribute significantly towards promoting Women's human rights and increasing legal literacy and gender awareness among women.

Although it is often not easy, the WRC tries to balance its various forms of activities, which are complementary and lead toward the same general goal. We believe that it is only by acting on various levels, that we can truly advance Women's human rights and gender equality. It is only by listening to women who test the law in their real lives and by monitoring institutions applying the law, that we can identify gaps and propose changes. If we want to change the way the law is applied, we need to educate those who hold decision-making positions and those responsible for the application of law. It is also important to have both of these groups on our side. We need to build bridges between legislators and their constituencies in order to make our effort more effective and create genuine participatory democracy, where people are not treated as objects but as active agents having a role in law and policy changes.

There is no doubt that balancing and combining various forms of activities is a difficult task but it provides an informed and comprehensive perspective, necessary to advance Women's human rights and gender equality in Poland.

In the reporting period, the WRC continued its advocacy efforts for the advancement of Women's human rights. The WRC's advocacy efforts include particularly the following:

1. taking active part in the Forum for the Cooperation between NGOs and the Women's Parliamentary Caucus where WRC had an opportunity to present its opinion on various issues and influence law and policy making process;
5. working on further improvement of the draft law on the elimination of violence in intimate relationship and its promotion in decision making circles as well as among other interested professions and other people;
6. lecturing policemen, prosecutors and judges about the victims' rights and at seminars organized by the Ministry of Justice and by the Parliament;
7. continuing a campaign aimed at introducing restraining order into Polish legislation. The campaign was started from the collection of signatures under the petition submitted to the Ministry of Justice. The WRC on various seminars organized by the Ministry of Justice for the police, prosecutors and judges had a chance to present its main points and call for its implementation.
8. organizing seminars for policemen dealing with rape cases, where policy guidelines were developed and approved by the participants;
9. campaigning for the withdrawal of the government's information center brochure on Women's rights in the European Union which was full of mistakes and errors; the WRC was asked by the government to prepare its expertise on this publication, which was finally withdrawn from public distribution;
10. developing TV and radio spots against violence against women which will be presented in public TV and radio as free of charge social adds;
11. developing posters on violence against women to be used during the "16 days campaign"; they will be exposed in public transport (buses and trams) in Warsaw as well as in several public places;

In the reporting period the WRC continued to provide legal services to individual women who cannot afford a lawyer. We have primarily dealt with cases from the area of criminal law (domestic violence, rape) and family law (divorce alimony, child support and the division of property. Additionally, the Center has handled cases of sexual harassment, employment discrimination and other labor law abuses cases.

The assistance provided by the WRC ranged from a simple legal advice and writing legal papers, to assisting in the local police stations, prosecutors offices, and courts, as well as testifying on behalf of clients or acting as the so called "person of confidence" during divorce cases. The Center is also standing occasionally as an NGO representing WRC clients before the court. Using this possibility does not only allow the WRC to represent individual women, but gives the opportunity to provide the court with the Center's expertise concerning the broader context of the case.

The Women's Rights Center is implementing its public interest law program by monitoring selected cases and providing legal representation in selected cases, which are so important that they could constitute a legal precedent. Currently we are involved in several sexual harassment cases. In one of them we pay for the legal representation of 5 women nurses who brought a criminal charge against a doctor who had sexually harassed them. Recently the WRC has been also involved in the case of a woman murdered by her husband who had battered her for many years. There are also charges filed against policemen for negligence. The WRC representative appeared also in court on behalf of women who killed her husband who had battered her for many years. We encouraged TV to produce a documentary on these two cases to challenge negligent conduct of the law enforcement and judiciary in Poland. The WRC also stand up in these cases as an NGO on behalf women, whose rights were violated. It gave us an opportunity to present amicus briefs and statements during the proceedings.

An increasingly important role of the WRC is monitoring the institutions, which apply the law. The Center continued to train a large group of volunteers to accompany our clients to court, police, and prosecutor's offices. This accompanying program is working very well. We also asked several times our trained by WRC Women's rights advocates in different part of Poland to accompany women who wrote or called us from this region. The importance of an advocate cannot be underestimated. The mere presence of an advocate with a woman in court, at the police station, or in the prosecutor's office informs the respective institution that their application of the law is being monitored, and is a method by which existing gender bias and stereotypes can be discovered and confronted. The WRC act as an NGO in criminal cases, especially when the case may be precedent setting. Our volunteers also act as a trust people in civil cases, which are under the closed door. It is especially important to assist woman who can not afford a lawyer while a man is legally represented in the court. We stress out the inequality of both parties in the court. In the future we plan to expend the program, monitor all court cases in and prepare the report. The goal of this program is to improve court practices in dealing with violence against women cases.

The WRC continue providing psychological assistance to individual women and facilitated a support group for women victims of violence. It is a short term counseling based on the principle that a woman knows the best what is good for her and she decides for herself. We only assist her in making her own decisions and give her support when needed. One of the functions of the psychological counseling apart from empowerment is also to prepare women for their appearances in the court. It is done in cooperation with our legal counselors. Because of the unfamiliarity of the courtroom, women are often unprepared to appear and testify, and their nervousness and anxiety often hamper their performance. Women have a possibility to join the support group, which is aimed to empower them and help them to leave a violent relationship. Our psychologist works also with women and children who are in the shelter. There is a growing need among our client for psychological counseling. Three-part time psychologist working at the Center is overworked and their clients have to wait 2-3 weeks. One of them is specializing in rape cases.

Since August 1999, WRC runs its own shelter for battered women. It is an apartment where 6-7 woman with children can find safe place. The principle of a shelter is that the address for safety reason is secret. The Batory Foundation and local government support the shelter. We provide legal and psychological assistance to women who stay there as well as some social help as well.

The WRC for two year operates hotline STOP Violence and Discrimination against Women. Operation of the hotline is based on volunteers. Twice a week there is legal telephone counseling. Volunteers who work on the hotline are trained and supervised by the coordinator. The WRC would like to open a free of charge connection in order to reach low-income women from longer distance but so far we did not succeed to get money for such a hotline. .

The number of letters and e-mails asking for legal help is steadily increasing. Women from all over Poland write to us with their problems asking for help. One of our lawyers who are answering those letters often additionally adds to the letter our legal manuals. The fact that woman writes to us from far away shows how well known and respected NGO we are.

Below are some statistics of the victim assistance and public interest law program:

1. Legal counseling in the office (oral, writing legal papers etc.) - average 151 individual visits per month.
2. Psychological counseling - about 100 clients per month.
3. Support group - once a week.
4. Assisting victims in contacts with the criminal justice professionals and other interventions - approximately 12 per month.
5. Telephone calls (STOP hotline) - approximately 335 per month (legal and psychological counseling, providing information on other institutions etc.).
8. Occasional legal counseling by e-mail - approximately 15-20 per month.
9. Answering letters to clients - 20-30 month