Ordo Iuris: The Ultra-Conservative Organisation Transforming Poland

Speaking to BIRN on the sidelines of the event, Education Minister Czarnek did not shy away from the depiction of the Ordo Iuris university as part of a broader set of changes to the country's education system that he, as the minister, had been planning.

The symbiosis between the conservative-nationalist governing party of Law and Justice (PiS) and Ordo Iuris clearly apparent during this launch event - although Culture Minister Glinski was careful to stress to the media that Ordo Iuris was a non-governmental, grassroots organisation, not in any way connected to the Polish government - was far from unprecedented.

Last autumn, BIRN reported on how the Polish government was conducting diplomatic efforts in neighbouring countries to rally support for a "family rights treaty", drawn up by Ordo Iuris among others, which was designed as a replacement for the Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Over the past two years, municipal resolutions against what has been called "LGBT ideology", often proposed by PiS local councillors, were in many cases based on a template that had been drafted by Ordo Iuris.

And, most notoriously, last year's Constitutional Tribunal ruling that made abortion illegal even in the case of a non-viable pregnancy was also the result of longstanding efforts by this group to ban abortion. Back in 2016, legislation on a total ban on abortion that was pushed by Ordo Iuris failed to pass parliament because of massive protests (called the "Black Protest"). A  group of parliamentarians, mostly from PiS, subsequently requested the Constitutional Tribunal rule on the constitutionality of the existing abortion legislation, leading to the 2020 ruling that virtually bans the procedure.