The article aims to discuss the European standards concerning the freedom of association of armed forces personnel. Relevant norms in this regard result from human rights treaty law but also from soft-law elaborated within the Council of Europe. The authors juxtapose the existing standards with the scope of the freedom of association provided in Polish Constitution of 1997 and relevant domestic law. They ask whether the armed forces personnel need to form and join trade unions to secure their rights or perhaps the existing forms of exercising the freedom of association are satisfactory? The authors conclude that the current legal solutions in Poland meet the European and constitutional standards, and allow the Polish Armed Forces to observe neutrality regarding political matters. Nevertheless, the prohibition to form and join trade unions in Polish armed forces is of statutory rather than constitutional origin.

Normative Guarantees of the Freedom of Association in Political Parties in Kazakhstan

The subject of the study is the problem of freedom of association in political parties in Kazakhstan from the normative perspective. The analysis of national regulations concerning the guarantee of political pluralism and determining the principles for the creation and operation of political parties in Kazakhstan indicates for series transgressions and contradictions with international obligations accepted by them at the area freedom of association. The current law on political parties in this country contains very restrictive provisions. It lacks provisions that would guarantee the access of political parties to the mass media and the free organization of meetings and demonstrations. The law also prohibits the creation of religious, national and ethnic political parties.

On the 25th of September, 2015 the Polish Parliament adopted the act amending the 1989 Act on Associations. Though there had been eight subsequent amendments, the 2015 act was the first aiming to substantially adapt the Act on Associations – the first legal effect of the political consensus achieved within the Round Table negotiations of the then Communist government and the “democratic opposition” – to new social and economic conditions of Poland. 26 years of functioning of the Act have been the time of passage from “real socialism” to “democratic state of law” having to base, according to the 1997 Constitution, on “social market economy”, and from a practical isolation of Poland within its borders to its opening to the world, in particular within the framework of European institutions. The article sketches, also on the basis of the author’s personal experience due to his participation in drafting and legislative works, the course of the revision works initiated in 2009, in particular of parliamentary works on the 2014 President’s draft law, as well as their limited results achieved in the 2015 act. Analyses of causes of such limitation are presented on the plane of the most important items of the pre- -parliamentary and parliamentary debates, i.e. right of legal persons to associate on equal terms with physical persons (not included in the President’s proposal), right of foreigners to associate on equal terms with citizens (and inhabitants) of Poland (its application had been proposed by the President, but not included in the act), and legal effect of the, generally agreed, elevation of the status of “ordinary association” on functioning of the present ordinary associations that would not wish to become new ordinary associations; the latter question relates to the fundamental issue of the sense of the freedom of association.

The Freedom of Association as a Form of Meeting Human Social Needs

The individual’s use of freedom of association has a significant impact on various aspects of human existence. Its existence determines the opportunity to meet needs and makes it possible to strive to achieve assumed goals together with other people. The interpersonal nature of this type of interaction has consequences. The article aims to demonstrate that the freedom of association affects not only the way in which an individual’s political needs are met, but also the satisfaction of social values and human development. The opportunities that the right to freedom of association brings are derived not only from the organizational forms that individuals can use but also from their individual needs, which this value aims to fulfill.