Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Born on 18th of April 1927 in Płock.
After the end of the Second World War, he began studies at the law department of the University of Warsaw. In 1950 he began to take part in public works: he presided over Akademicka Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza (a publishing cooperative), from which he was soon expelled for “clericalism”. Later on, he joined a group connected with the “Dziś i jutro” weekly magazine (later known as PAX). As a sign of protest against the instrumental treatment of the Church and servility towards the communists, Mazowiecki left the group in 1955. He wrote for “Po Prostu” and “Tygodnik Powszechny”. In October 1956, he became a co-founder of the Catholic Intelligentsia Club; two years later he established the “Więź” monthly magazine, where he held the position of editor in chief until 1980.
In the years 1961-1971 Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a Member of Parliament, where he was chosen to represent catholic oppositional societies. Together with Stefan Kisielewski, Konstanty Łubieński, Stanisław Stomma and Jerzy Zawieyski he established in the Sejm (Lower House of Polish Parliament) a party known as “Znak”. In March 1968 he drew up an interpellation of “Znak” as a sign of protest against political pogroms and the beating of students by police officers. In 1971 he proposed calling a Sejm commission to investigate what happened by the Coast; this initiative was rejected by the Polish United Worker’s Party (Polish: PZPR). In 1975 he co-organized a protest against adding the words “przewodnia rola PZPR” (“the PZPR party as the leading force”) to the Constitution. He took part in the democratic opposition and was one of the founders of educational courses known as a “flying university”.
In August 1980 he initiated the letter of intellectuals who supported the workers on strike by the Coast. He organized and was a leader of the commission of experts working with the Interfactory Strike Committee at the Gdańsk Shipyard. After establishing “Tygodnik Solidarność”, he became its editor in chief. When the martial law was announced in Poland, Mazowiecki was interned from December 13th, 1981 until December 23rd, 1982. He was an editor of the Solidarity report: “Polska w pięć lat po sierpniu” (“Poland: five years after the events of August”).
He created an underground publication called “21”. He was an advisor to both Lech Wałęsa and the trade union. He organized the Citizens’ Committee, and in May and August 1988, Mazowiecki took part in the Gdańsk Shipyard strike.
In 1989 he took part in organizing the Polish Round Table Talks. He was a leader of the trade union pluralism workgroup, and took part in the meetings of the political reform workgroup and mass media subworkgroup. He coordinated the work of the oppositional workgroups responsible for negotiations. Once again he became the editor in chief of the reactivated "Tygodnik Solidarność”.
On the 24th of August 1989, the Sejm appointed Tadeusz Mazowiecki as Prime Minister of Poland. On the 12th of September the Sejm was in favour of the program and composition of the government proposed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki. In the presidential elections of November 1990, he was a candidate of the Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (Polish: Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna – ROAD) and Forum of the Democratic Right (Polish: Forum Prawicy Demokratycznej – FPD). He lost the elections in the first round with 18% of the votes, which gave him third place. He was convinced that with decreasing social support and after many attacks directed at him, he could not remain as Prime Minister. Tadeusz Mazowiecki handed in his cabinet’s resignation.
On the 2nd of December 1990, during a meeting of the representatives of Voivodeship Election Committees, Tadeusz Mazowiecki proposed establishing of the Democratic Union (Polish: Unia Demokratyczna). He was chosen as president of the party. In May 1991, during the Joint Convention, Democratic Union, ROAD and FPD were fused to create one political party – the Democratic Union. The Convention chose Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the president of the union. In April 1994, during the Joint Congress of the Democratic Union and Liberal-Democratic Congress, Tadeusz Mazowiecki became president of the newly established political party – Freedom Union (Polish: Unia Wolności). He held this office until May 1995.
In the Sejm during the 1st term of service, he was a Member of Parliament from the Poznań region (elections in October 1991). Member of the parliamentary National Defence Committee, Select Committee responsible for considering the project for the Bill of Rights and Freedoms (Polish: Karta Praw i Wolności), and Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly. He was also a president of the special commission responsible for considering the project of the constitutional act concerning mutual relations between the executive branch and the legislature (the so called “Little Constitution”).
In August 1992, Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected for the office of Special Emissary of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He was responsible for ensuring that human rights in former Yugoslavia were not being violated. In July 1995, after the fall of Srebrenica – another safety area in Bosnia, Tadeusz Mazowiecki resigned from the office as he “could no longer take part in what was only a theoretical process of protecting human rights.”
In the Sejm during the 2nd term of service, he was a Member of Parliament from the Poznań region (elections on the 19th of September 1993). Member of the parliamentary National Defence Committee, Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly, and Select Committee responsible for considering the bills on the amendment to the constitutional act concerning the procedure for preparing and enacting the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
In the Sejm during the 3rd term of service, he was a Member of Parliament from the Cracow region (elections in September 1997). In the Sejm he was a president of the European Integration Commission. He also took part in the works of the Foreign Affairs Commission. Mazowiecki presided over the delegation of the Sejm and the Senate to the EU-Poland Joint Parliamentary Committee, and he was also co-president of this commission.
In the years 2003-2009 Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a member of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for the benefit of victims of crimes which are subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki has received honorary doctoral degrees from such universities as: Leuven, Genoa, Giessen, Poitiers, Exeter, Warsaw, University of Economics in Katowice and Tuzla. He was decorated with the Order of the White Eagle (1995), Golden Order of Bosnia (1996), National Order of the Legion of Honour (1997), and Commander's Cross with the Star of the Order Of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (1998). He is the author of many articles, essays and books: “Rozdroża i wartości” (“Cross-roads and Values”), “Powrót do najprostszych pytań” (“Return to the Simplest of Questions”), “Internowanie” (“Internment”), and “Druga twarz Europy” (“The Second Face of Europe”). He is also a co-author of “Chrześcijanie wobec praw człowieka” (“Christians and the Human Rights”) and “Ludzie Lasek” (“People of Laski”). He is the winner of many national and international prizes, such as the Andrzej Strug Literary Prize (1980) and a prize for Special Contributions to Developing Polish-German Relations in the year 1993.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki has three sons, seven grandchildren and one grand-grandchild.