Dear Mr. President,

With concern for the protection of the dignity and rights of people, who feel put down by the placement of their names on the IPN list made publicly available, we ask you, Mr. President to use measures that would allow these people to receive explanations and corrections, as quickly and effectively as possible.

We believe that in order to achieve this, the Institute of National Memory should:

1. Bearing responsibility for the list it created, exceptionally retract from the principle of not publishing its databases and attach this list, which is already in general circulation, onto its website, in order to prevent the use of fabricated lists. The list should be preceded by an introduction that explains its nature, enumerates all the groups of people placed on it and clearly states that not everyone, whose name is found there, worked for or cooperated with the secret service of the Polish People’s Republic.
2. Ensure that all people, who feel that their rights have been violated by this list’s publication, have an opportunity to receive an appropriate rectification. This means that:

   - - people, whose files are stored at the IPN, and who, in accordance with the act, belong to the group of victims – should receive quick verification, lasting no longer than 30 days, of the information concerning them, which would provide for an opportunity to hand their files over to them and, with their consent, to place this information on the website.
   - - people, who found first and last names identical to their own on the list, and whose files were not included in the IPN achieves, should have the right to receive, also within the strictly defined deadline, confirmation on the website of the fact that the data found on the list does not relate to them.

Furthermore, we believe that the IPN authorities should do their absolute best to prevent the disclosure of other such lists until the moment when the situation, which arose as a result of the dissemination of the first one, has been brought under control, meaning until the claims of those unjustly accused and defamed as a result of being placed on the same list with people, who collaborated with security services, have been satisfied.

On behalf of the members of the Helsinki Committee in Poland:
Halina Bortnowska-Dąbrowska, Janusz Grzelak, Zbigniew Hołda, Wojciech Maziarski, Michał Nawrocki, Andrzej Paczkowski, Andrzej Rzepliński, Danuta Przywara, Stefan Starczewski

Danuta Przywara

see also: Helsinki Committee in Poland, members of the Helsinki Committee in Poland, the Helsinki Committee’s Declarations