Criminal-Law Protection Due to Religion (Article 194 of the Penal Code)

The article analyses the problem of the offence of religious discrimination under Article 194 of the Polish Penal Code. The author presented in the first part of the article the process of  formation of “crimes against freedom of conscience and religion” in the criminal codes of 1932, 1969 and 1997, then discussed the object of protection related to the offence of “religious discrimination” in the light of Article 192 of the Penal Code of 1969. From this perspective, she analysed the object of protection, offender, objective aspects and subjective aspects of the applicable Article 194 of the Polish Penal Code of 1997.