SECTION V
GENERAL DUTIES AND RIGHTS OF CITIZENS

Art. 87. A Polish citizen may not be at the same time a citizen of another state.

Art. 88. Polish citizenship is acquired:

(i) By birth if the parents are Polish citizens. (2.) By naturalization granted by the competent state authority. Special statutes define other rules as to Polish citizenship, its acquisition and loss.

Art. 89. Fidelity to the Republic of Poland is the first duty of a citizen.

Art. 90. Every citizen has the duty of respecting and obeying the constitution of the state and of the valid laws and ordinances of the state and self-government authorities.

Art. 91. All citizens are subject to military service; the character and manner, order and term of service, exemption from such duty, and any duties, contributions or services, for military purposes, will be defined by legislation.

Art. 92. It is the duty of all citizens to submit to any public burdens, services, and duties imposed by virtue of statute.

Art. 93. All citizens are bound to respect legitimate authority and to facilitate the performance of its duties, as well as to perform conscientiously public duties to which they may be appointed by the nation or the proper authority.

Art. 94. It is the duty of citizens to bring up their children as righteous citizens of the mother country, and to secure to them at least elementary education.

This duty will be defined more in detail by a special statute.

Art. 95. The Republic of Poland guarantees on its territory, to all, without distinction of extraction, nationality, language, race, or religion, full protection of life, liberty, and property.

Foreigners enjoy, on condition of reciprocity, rights equal to those of citizens of the Polish State, and have duties equal to those of such citizens, unless statutes expressly require Polish citizenship.

Art. 96. All citizens are equal before the law. Public offices are accessible in equal measure to all, on conditions prescribed by the law.

The Republic of Poland does not recognize privileges of birth or of estate, or any coats of arms, family or other titles, with the exception of those of learning, office, or profession. A Polish citizen may not accept foreign titles or orders without the permission of the President of the Republic.

Art. 97. Limitations of personal liberty, especially search of person and arrest, are admissible only in cases prescribed by law, and in the manner defined by statutes, by virtue of an order from judicial authorities.

In case a judicial order cannot be issued immediately, it should be served, at the latest, within forty-eight hours with a written statement of the cause of arrest, signed by a judicial authority. Arrested persons who have not been served within forty-eight hours with a written statement of the cause of arrest, signed by a judicial authority, regain their freedom at once.

The means of compulsory service by which the administrative authorities may enforce their orders are determined in statutes.

Art. 98. No one may be deprived of the court to which he is subject by law. Exceptional courts are admissible only in cases determined by statutes, which statutes must have been issued before the offense was committed. A citizen may be prosecuted and punishment inflicted only by virtue of a statute actually in force. Punishments involving physical suffering are not permitted, and no one may be subjected to such punishment.

No statute may deprive a citizen of access to the courts for the purpose of demanding reparation for injury or damage.

Art. 99. The Republic of Poland recognizes all property, whether belonging personally to individual citizens or collectively to associations of citizens, institutions, self-government organizations, or the state itself, as one of the most important bases of social organization and legal order, and guarantees to all citizens, institutions, and associations, protection of their property, permitting only in cases provided by a statute the abolition or limitation of property, whether personal or collective, for reasons of higher utility, against compensation. Only a statute may determine to what extent property, for reasons of public utility, shall form the exclusive property of the state, and in how far rights of citizens and of their legally recognized associations to use freely land, waters, minerals, and other treasures of nature, may be subject to limitations for public reasons.

The land, as one of the most important factors of the existence of the nation and the state, may not be the subject of unrestricted transfer (commerce). Statutes will define the right of the state to buy up land against the will of the owners, and to regulate the transfer of land, applying the principle that the agrarian organization of the Republic of Poland should be based on agricultural units capable of regular production and forming private property.

Art. 100. The home and hearth of the citizen are inviolable. Infringements of this right by entering the home, searching it and taking papers or movables may, apart from the necessity of executing administrative orders based on a specific statutory authorization, take place only by order of judicial authorities, in the manner and in the cases prescribed by the protection statute.

Art. 101. Every citizen has the liberty of selecting on the territory of the state his place of residence and abode, to move about and to emigrate, as well as to choose his occupation and profession, and to transport his property.

These rights may be restricted only by statute.

Art. 102. Labor is the main basis of the wealth of the Republic, and should remain under the special protection of the state.

Every citizen has the right to state protection for his labor, and in case of lack of work, illness, accident, or debility, to the benefits of social insurance which will be determined by a special statute.

The state has the duty of making accessible also moral guidance and religious consolation to citizens under its immediate care in public institutions, such as educational institutions, barracks, hospitals, prisons, and charitable homes.

Art. 103. Children without sufficient parental care, neglected with respect to education, have the right to state care and aid within the limits to be deter mined by statute.

Parents may not be deprived of authority over their children except by judicial decision.

Special statutes determine the protection of motherhood.

Children under fifteen years of age may not be wage-earners; neither may women be employed at night, or young laborers be employed in industries detrimental to their health.

Permanent employment of children and young people of school age for wage-earning purposes is forbidden.

Art. 104. Every citizen has the right to express freely his ideas and convictions in so far as he does not thereby violate legal provisions.

Art. 105. Freedom of the press is guaranteed. Censorship, or the system of licensing printed matter, may not be introduced. Daily papers and other matter printed in the country may not be debarred from the mails, nor may their dissemination on the territory of the Republic be restricted.

A special statute will define the responsibility for the abuse of this freedom.

Art. 106. The secrecy of letters and other correspondence may be infringed upon only in cases provided by law.

Art. 107. Citizens have the right of presenting individual or collective petitions to all state and self-government representative bodies and public authorities.

Art. 108. Citizens have the right of combining, meeting, and forming associations and unions.

The exercise of these rights is defined by statutes.

Art. 109. Every citizen has the right of preserving his nationality and developing his mother-tongue and national characteristics.

Special statutes of the state will guarantee to minorities in the Polish State the full and free development of their national characteristics, with the assistance of autonomous minority unions, endowed with the character of public law organizations, within the limits of unions of general self-government.

The state will have, in regard to their activity, the right of control and of supplementing their financial means in case of need.

Art. 110. Polish citizens belonging to national, religious, or linguistic minorities have the same right as other citizens of founding, supervising, and administering at their own expense, charitable, religious, and social institutions, schools and other educational institutions, and of using freely therein their language, and observing the rules of their religion.

Art. 111. Freedom of conscience and of religion is guaranteed to all citizens. No citizen may suffer a limitation of the rights enjoyed by other citizens, by reason of his religion and religious convictions.

All inhabitants of the Polish State have the right of freely professing their religion in public as well as in private, and of performing the commands of their religion or rite, in so far as this is not contrary to public order or public morality.

Art. 112. Religious freedom may not be used in a way contrary to statutes. No one may evade the performance of public duties by reason of his religious beliefs. No one may be compelled to take part in religious activities or rites unless he is subject to parental or guardians' authority.

Art. 113. Every religious community recognized by the state has the right of organizing collective and public services; it may conduct independently its internal affairs; it may possess and acquire movable and immovable property, administer and dispose of it; it remains in possession and enjoyment of its endowments and funds, and of religious, educational, and charitable institutions. No religious community may, however, be in opposition to the statutes of the state.

Art. 114. The Roman Catholic religion, being the religion of the preponderant majority of the nation, occupies in the state the chief position among enfranchised religions. The Roman Catholic Church governs itself under its own laws. The relation of the state to the church will be determined on the basis of an agreement with the Apostolic See, which is subject to ratification by the Seym.

Art. 115. The churches of the religious minorities and other legally organized religious communities govern themselves by their own laws, which the state may not refuse to recognize unless they contain rules contrary to law.

The relation of the state to such churches and religions will be determined from time to time by legislation after an understanding with their legal representatives.

Art. 116. The recognition of a new, or hitherto not legally recognized religion, may not be refused to religious communities whose institutions' teachings and organization are not contrary to public order or public morality.

Art. 117. Learned investigations and the publication of their results are free. Every citizen has the right to teach, to found a school or educational institution, and to direct it if he complies with the requirements laid down by statutes concerning the qualifications of teachers, the safety of the child entrusted to him, and a loyal attitude toward the state. All schools and educational institutions, public as well as private, are subject to supervision by state authorities within the limits prescribed by statutes.

Art. 118. Within the limits of the elementary school, instruction is compulsory for all citizens of the state. A statute will define the period, limits, and manner of acquiring such education.

Art. 119. Teaching in state and self-government schools is gratuitous.

The state will insure to pupils who are exceptionally able, but not well-to-do, scholarships for their maintenance in secondary and academic schools.

Art. 120. Instruction in religion is compulsory for all pupils in every educational institution, the curriculum of which includes instruction of youth under eighteen years of age, if the institution is maintained wholly or in part by the state, or by self-government bodies. The direction and supervision of religious instruction in schools belongs to the respective religious communities, reserving to the state educational authorities the right of supreme supervision.

Art. 121. Every citizen has the right to compensation for damage inflicted upon him by civil or military organs of state authorities, by an official act not in accordance with the right or duties of the service. The state is responsible for the damage, jointly with the guilty organs; actions may be brought against the state and against officials, independently of any permission by a public authority. Communes and other self-government bodies, as well as their organs, are responsible in the same manner.

Special statutes will define the application of this principle.

Art. 122. The rules as to citizens' rights apply also to persons belonging to the armed force. Special military statutes define exceptions to this principle.

Art. 123. Armed force may be used only by request of a civil authority under strict obedience to statutes, for the purpose of putting down disturbances, or of enforcing the execution of legal rules. Exceptions to this principle are admissible only by virtue of statutes on the state of siege and of war.

Art. 124. A temporary suspension of citizen's rights; of personal liberty (Article 97), of inviolability of home and hearth (Article 100), of freedom of the press (Article 105), of secrecy of correspondence (Article 106), of the right of combining, meeting, and forming associations (Article 108), may take place for the whole territory of the state or for localities in which it may prove necessary for reasons of public safety.

Such suspension may be directed only by the Council of Ministers, by permission of the President of the Republic, during a war or when an outbreak of war threatens, as well as in case of internal disturbances or of widespread conspiracies which bear the character of high treason and threaten the constitution of the state or the safety of the citizens.

Such a decision of the Council of Ministers, if made while the Seym is in session, must be immediately submitted to the Seym for confirmation. If such a decision, to apply on a territory which comprises more than one Voyevodship be issued during an interval between meetings of the Seym, the Seym meets automatically within eight days from the publication of the decision in order to take the proper step.

Should the Seym refuse confirmation, the state of siege immediately loses its binding force. If the Council of Ministers directs a state of siege after the expiration of the term of the Seym, or after dissolution of the Seym, the decision of the Government must be submitted to the newly elected Seym without delay, at its first meeting.

These principles will be defined more in detail by a statute on the state of siege.