Selected Fundamental Rights in the Polish Constitution of 1952

Fundamental rights are those which, in the Constitution, provide protection for the most important rights and freedoms. Due to the nature of the People’s Republic of Poland, the guarantees provided by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Poland of 1952 were essentially limited to the rights granted to citizens only. In socialist states, their role was reduced to defining the position of the citizens and their relations with the state. These were civil, political rights, granted by the state, and not recognized as inherent rights of every human being. In its original version of 1952, the Constitution contained in Chapter 7 a catalog entitled: Fundamental rights and duties of citizens. After the 1976 amendment, this was Chapter 8. As fundamental rights, the Constitution recognized the following: the right to work, the right to rest, the right to health care, the right to education, the right to enjoy cultural achievements, equal rights for men and women, the right of marriage and the family to be protected by the state, the right of the youth to be protected by the state, freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of speech, printing, assembly, rallies, marches and demonstrations, the right of association, equality of citizens regardless of nationality, race, or religion, the right to address complaints and grievances to state bodies, personal inviolability, the right to asylum of foreign citizens. The aim of this study is to characterize several selected fundamental rights introduced by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Poland. The analysis will include: the right to work, the right to education, freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of speech, printing, assembly, rallies, marches and demonstrations, the right of association. The paper will present the way the above-mentioned rights were regulated in the Constitution and their interpretation in the socialist state. The method used in the work is the descriptive method.