Poland

Previous reports: 2024 | 2023/24

Principal EBCO concerns

• Although conscription is suspended, Poland has provisions whereby civilians may be allocated to perform “personal services for defence,” under the direction of the military in the event of war or general mobilisation.

• No explicit provisions exist for the release of serving military personnel or reservists who develop conscientious objections. Prosecutions may result from refusing on grounds of conscience to comply with call-up to reserve service.

• “Security education”, including marksmanship is a compulsory part of the secondary school curriculum.

• Defence programmes presented by military personnel are offered in schools, including primary schools.

Based on the Ministry of Defence’s reply to EBCO’s questionnaire and public information:

Developments

In March 2025, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced plans for “large-scale military training for all adult males,” causing speculation about restoring compulsory military service. A month later, it was clarified that the goal is to train 100,000 volunteers annually starting in 2027.²

Poland committed to defence spending of 4.7% of GDP in 2025, the highest in NATO,³ while the President proposed a constitutional amendment that would establish a minimum of 4%.⁴

The country withdrew from the Anti Personnel Mine Ban Convention, alongside Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland,⁵ with the government also considering withdrawing from the Convention on Cluster Munitions.⁶

Conscription provisions and procedures

Conscription is suspended since 2009.⁷

Military registration is still conducted, and registration cannot be refused on grounds of conscience. Registration is required from the age of 18.

Reserve drill requirements are in place without recognition for the right to conscientious objection.

Conscientious objection provisions and procedures

Conscientious objection is recognised under Article 85(3) of the Polish Constitution.

An individual interested may apply for alternative service at the military qualification stage, to be performed should conscription be reactivated, or pending receipt of a mobilisation card.⁸

Information available

According to the Ministry of Defence, “information on this subject is included for each citizen in publicly available legal acts,” and “persons reporting for military qualification and expressing the intention to apply for substitute service are informed about” the relevant Homeland Defence Act articles.

This falls short of international standards that such information should be properly disseminated to the public and that persons should be informed of their rights when notified of their call-up or prospective call-up.⁹

Refusal to perform alternative service

Those who refuse to perform the alternative service are faced with penalties of fine, restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to 2 years according to Article 145 of the Penal Code.

Voluntary recruitment

Voluntary military service is governed by the Homeland Defence Act, Section VII,¹⁰ as well as regulations and decisions of the Minister of National Defence, which detail the recruitment procedures, medical and psychological examinations performed, presentation of required documents by volunteers, dates and places of training.

Since 2024, a one-month basic voluntary military training programme has been implemented, which is completed with an oath. Recruits can voluntarily continue into a 11-month specialised training in order to join the active army, a decision taken by 48% of recruits.

Those who complete the training programme and do not become professional soldiers are transferred to the passive reserve.

Conscientious objection during and after military service

In all forms of active military service where it is voluntary, it is possible to request for discharge.¹¹

A case of Jehovah’s Witness reserve soldier who was denied discharge revealed that the legislation did not provide for the possibility of a reservist applying for recognition as a conscientious objector.¹²

In its 2024 correspondence with the Commissioner for Human Rights who handled the case, the Ministry of Defence expressed intent to amend the legislation so as to “expand the list of individuals eligible to submit applications for alternative service, including reserve soldiers whose religious beliefs and worldviews prevent them from serving on active duty, regardless of whether they have previously served.”

It is unclear whether this was followed through in 2025. In its response to this year’s questionnaire, the Ministry repeated that such cases can be handled by classifying individuals into the "Ineffective Resources" subgroup of military records by the head of the Military Recruitment Centre. It also reported that the number of such cases is “marginal” and that no statistics are kept.

Militarisation of the education system

The “safety education” course in the core curriculum for primary and secondary schools includes marksmanship skills and weapons handling as well as practical training on the firing range.

Other voluntary programmes like "Education with the Army”, “Preparedness” universal training, “Military Preparation Units (MPU)”, “Cyber.Mil”, and “Vocational School Military Units (VSMU)”, open days of military

units, equipment demonstrations, meetings with soldiers or pro-defence

workshops, are available to underage persons in enrolled schools, mainly conducted by military personnel.¹³

1. Military expenditure figures are estimates published by SIPRI (The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) in April 2026.↩︎
2. https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-06-15/weekend-military-training-for-civilians-in-poland-i-want-to-learn-things-that-will-be-useful-in-case-of-war-its-my-patriotic-duty.html↩︎
3. https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7786/artykul/3472198,polish-president-signs-2025-budget-into-law↩︎
4. https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7784/Artykul/3493698,polish-president-pushes-for-constitutional-amendment-on-defence-spending↩︎
5. https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/202520E#a6↩︎
6. https://odessa-journal.com/poland-plans-to-withdraw-from-conventions-banning-anti-personnel-mines-and-cluster-munitions↩︎
7. Cf. EBCO Annual Report 2024 for details on the legal provisions and practices around conscription: https://ebco-beoc.org/poland/2024↩︎
8. Cf. EBCO Annual Report 2024 for details on the legal provisions and practices around conscientious objectors: https://ebco-beoc.org/poland/2024↩︎
9. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/41/23, para. 17-20↩︎
10. https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WDU20220000655↩︎
11. Cf. EBCO Annual Report 2024 for details on the practices around conscientious objectors during or after military service: https://ebco-beoc.org/poland/2024↩︎
12. Cf. EBCO Annual Report 2024 for more details on the case: https://ebco-beoc.org/poland/2024↩︎
13. Cf. EBCO Annual Report 2024 for details on the mandatory and voluntary programmes present in the education system: https://ebco-beoc.org/poland/2024↩︎