Wanda Hanna Nowicka (born 21 November 1956) is a Polish social activist and politician, member of theSejm since 2019[3][4] and previously between 2011 and 2015.[5] She served as theDeputy Marshal of the Sejm from 8 November 2011 to 11 November 2015.[5]
Born inLublin, she attended theUniversity of Warsaw, graduating with a degree inclassical philology, and worked as a teacher ofLatin andEnglish from 1985 to 1993. In 1990, Nowicka co-founded Neutrum, the Association for State Neutrality, an organization focused on the separation of church and state in Polish public life.[6] She was also one of the founders of the Federation for Women and Family Planning in 1991, anon-governmental organization which is the alliance of Neutrum and four other organizations.[7] She led the federation as its president for 20 years, from 1991 until 2011 when she resigned having got elected toSejm. In the 9th term ofSejm she is aChair of the Parliamentary Committee on National andEthnic Minorities.[8] She is also a founder and a Chair of the Parliamentary Group forwomen's rights.[9]
Politically, Nowicka has allied herself with various parties, but has remained unaffiliated outside of briefly joining theSolidarity movement in 1980 and 1981.[11] After 1989, she became involved inpolitics, cooperating withleft-wing groups, but remaining independent. Several times she unsuccessfully stood in various parliamentary elections. In 1991, she ran for theSejm from the list of Labour Solidarity, in 1997 she ran for Senator's seat on behalf of the Labour Union with 190,000 votes. In 1998–2002, she was elected to the firstMasovian Regional Assembly with SLD on the recommendation of thePolish Socialist Party (PPS). In the 2011 parliamentary elections, she allied herself withPalikot's Movement, and she won a parliamentary seat, gaining 7065 votes.[12] On 8 November 2011 she was electedDeputy Speaker of theSejm for the 7th term. In February 2013 she split with thePalikot's Movement and remained independent member of theSejm till the end term.[13] She ran with the Europa Plus coalition to theEuropean Parliament in 2014 inWarsaw district, and she received 7479 votes (second result), however,Europa Plus failed to gain any seats in the elections. On 21 February 2015 she announced her participation in the presidential election on behalf of thePolish Labour Party. Her candidacy was also supported by four political parties: thePolish Left, theSocial Democracy of Poland,Polish Socialist Party andUnion of the Left. She collected 91,000 out of 100,000 signatures required to be registered.[14]
In 2015 Nowicka ran to Sejm with theUnited Left coalition inMasovian district. She received 20,503 votes, which did not qualify her for a seat, because theUnited Left did not pass the 8% threshold required for thecoalition of parties.[15]
In 2019parliamentary elections, running from the first place on the list of the Left alliance inSilesia (29th district), she received 25,767 votes, achieving a third place in the constituency and obtaining a seat as a 9th-term MP.[18] In the Sejm, she was electedChair of the Committee on National andEthnic Minorities.[19] She founded and has been elected as a Chair of theParliamentary Group onWomen's Rights.[20]
In 2003, Nowicka invitedWomen on Waves toPoland. Their ship, theLangenort, arrived for two weeks toWładysławowo at the Polish coast to organize together with Polish women's activists, actions to rise awaress about repressiveness of the anti-abortion law in Poland and to provide earlyabortions in extraterritorial waters.[28] These actions were violently attacked byextreme rightnationalist groups such as the All-Poland Youth and theLeague of Polish Families, who seriously intimidated women in order to stop them from boarding the ship.[29]
Wanda Nowicka becameHonorary Citizen ofSpartanburg, South Carolina, USA in 1992. In 1994 she was a laureate of the Polish edition of the Woman of Europe competition. In 2000, she received the Rainbow Laurel award. In 2005, she received a £100,000 award from the Sigrid Rausing Foundation for the ASTRA network for outstanding leadership (the award was used to make the filmBreaking Silence).[32] In 2008, she won theUniversity-In-Exile Award fromNew School for Social Research in New York,[33] in recognition of her contribution to the struggle forwomen's rights inPoland and internationally.[33] For active support of international cooperation and chairing the Polish-Greek parliamentary group, the Government of the Hellenic Republic awarded Wanda Nowicka the Order of Honor of the second class at the rank of Grand Commander.[34]
1994Nowicka, W. "Two Steps Back: Poland’s New Abortion Law".Journal of Women’s History 5 (3): 151–55. Johns Hopkins University Press.
1995 Coliver, S., andNowicka W.,. "Poland". InThe Right to Know: Human Rights and Access to Reproductive Health Information. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 268–284.
1996Nowicka, W. "The effects of the anti-abortion law".EntreNous, December 1996, Copenhagen.
1996Nowicka, W. "Roman Catholic fundamentalism against women’s reproductive rights in Poland".Reproductive Health Matters, 4(8):21–29.
1996Nowicka, W. "Beijing '95 – A Chance That Could be Missed, in Voices of Women, Moving Forward with Dignity and Wholeness". The Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo.
1996Nowicka, W. "More Restrictive in Life than on Paper".Conscience, 17(2) (Summer), Washington.
1997Nowicka, W. “Ban on Abortion. Why?” and "Foundation of the Law in Ana’s Land". InSisterhood in Eastern Europe, ed. Tanya Renne. Westview Press: Division of HarperCollins Publishers.
1998Nowicka, W. "Report to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" (Situation of Women, esp. Reproductive Health and Rights). Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw.
1998Nowicka, W. “Factors Affecting Women’s Health in Eastern and Central Europe with particular emphasis on Infectious Diseases, Mental, Environmental and Reproductive Health". Paper for Expert Meeting on Women and Health, Mainstreaming the Gender Perspective into Health Sector, Tunis.
1998Nowicka, W. “Mainstreaming the Gender Perspective into the Health Sector". ENTRE NOUS, WHO, Copenhagen, Winter 1998, No 40-41.
1999Nowicka, W. "Shadow Report on Gender Discrimination for the UN Human Rights Committee". Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw.
1999Nowicka, W. "Advocating and Monitoring the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action in Poland".Development 42(1): 84–85.
1999Nowicka, W. "Advocating and monitoring the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action in Poland: the benefits of NGO reporting to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights".Medical Law Journal 18(2–3):295–303.
2000Nowicka, W., ed. "The Anti-abortion Law in Poland: Its Functioning, Social Effects and Behaviours Report". Warsaw, Federation for Women and Family Planning.
2000Nowicka, W., and E. Zielińska. 2000. "Medical Community’s Perspectives on Abortion". InReport of the Federation 2000, 1–34.Strona główna.
2001Nowicka, W. "Struggles for and against Legal Abortion in Poland". InAdvocating for Abortion Access, edited by B. Klugman, and D. Budlender, 226–27. Johannesburg: Women's Health Project.
2001Nowicka, W., and F. Girard. "Clear and Compelling Evidence: The Polish Tribunal on Abortion Rights".Reproductive Health Matters 10 (19): 22–30.
2002Nowicka, W. "Shadow Report to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights". Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw.
2003Nowicka, W. "Solidarity over Borders". Report about Women on Waves in Poland, Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw [in Polish] [Solidarność kobiet ponad granicami, Kronika wydarzeń Władysławowo 21 czerwca-4 lipca 2003].
2004Nowicka, W. "Shadow Report on Gender Discrimination in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights". Prepared for the UN Human Rights Committee.
2004Nowicka, W. "Poland – The Struggle for Abortion Rights in Poland". InSexPolitics: Reports from the Front Lines, edited byRichard Parker,Rosalind Petchesky and Robert Sember. Publisher: Sexuality Policy Watch. pp. 167–196.
2007Nowicka, W. "Prawa Reprodukcyjne w Polsce [Reproductive Rights in Poland]". in Czarna Księga Kobiet WAB, Warsaw.
2007Nowicka, W, and M. Pochec. "Shadow Report on Women in Poland". Prepared for the UN Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
2008Nowicka, W., (ed.) "Reproductive Rights in Poland, Report", Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw.
2008 "The Anti-Abortion Act in Poland – The Legal and Actual State". InReproductive Rights in Poland: The Effects of the Anti-Abortion Law in Poland,Report,Nowicka W. (ed.) 17–44. Warsaw: Federation for Women and Family Planning.
2011Nowicka W.,Polskie zmagania o aborcję wDrogi Równości (red B. Maciejewska, K.Kądziela, Z.Dąbrowska), Fundacja Przestrzenie Dialogu (Gdańsk 2011).
2011Nowicka, W. "Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the Human Rights Agenda: Controversial and Contested".Reproductive Health Matters 19 (38): 119–28.
2011Nowicka W.,Odzyskać ciało, odzyskać godność wA jak hipokryzja (red. Claudia Snochowska-Gonzalez), Wyd. O Matko! (Warszawa 2011).
2018Nowicka, W.Naruszenie praw reprodukcyjnych jako forma tortur w Prawo i Medycyna, Nr 4/2017 pp. 148–168.
2019Wanda Nowicka & Anna C. Zielinska,Entre l’idéologie et l’économie : les politiques de natalité en Europe Centrale in Mouvements des idées et des luttes (Oct. 2019) http://mouvements.info/entre-lideologie-et-leconomie-les-politiques-de-natalite-en-europe-centrale/
2019Nowicka, W.Les droits des femmes à l’épreuve du Sacré en Pologne in L’Idée Libre, Revue fondée en 1911, La Loi et le Sacré (Dec. 2019), ed. Wafa Tamzini.
2019Nowicka, W. Regulska J. Book Chapter “Repressive Policies and Women's Reproductive Choices in Poland: The Case of State Violence Against Women" inWomen's Journey to Empowerment in the 21st Century (eds. Zaleski K., Enrile. A., Weiss E.L., and Wang X., Oxford University Press. (to be out in November)
^Mishtal, Joanna (2015).The Politics of Morality:The Church, the State, and Reproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland. Ohio University Press.ISBN9780821445174.
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