Sylwia Iwona Spurek (born 29 January 1976) is a Polish lawyer, as well as a social and political activist. A doctor of law, lecturer, solicitor, and legislator, she specialises in criminal law. Spurek is a member of the Polish Society of Anti-Discrimination Law and the Polish Legislative Society. From 2019 to 2024 she served as a Member of the European Parliament.
From 2015 to 2019, she was Deputy Polish Ombudsman (serving Polish Ombudsman at the time was Adam Bodnar). She was a Spring (part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group) Member of the European Parliament (MEP) elected in the 2019 European parliamentary election. She left Spring on 28 October 2019, and subsequently joined the Greens-EFA group in the European Parliament. She left the Group in June 2024 and became an Independent MEP.
From September 2024 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.
Early life and education Spurek was born on 29 January 1976 in Skarżysko-Kamienna, Poland. She attended the Adam Mickiewicz High School in Skarżysko-Kamienna from 1991 to 1995, where she passed her matriculation exam. She graduated from University of Łódź Faculty of Law and Administration in 2000. Her master thesis focused on the participation of women's organisations in civil procedure. In the same year, she was awarded a scholarship from the Legal Fellowship Program and attended the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at the City University of New York. While in New York, she became involved in Hillary Clinton's 2000 election campaign. In 2004, Spurek completed a legislation training at the Polish Governmental Legislation Centre.
Spurek has a Domestic Violence Councellor Certificate awarded by The Blue Line Polish Nationwide Emergency Service for Victims of Domestic Violence – at the Institute of Health Psychology at the Polish Psychological Association.
In 2012, she defended a doctoral thesis on legal aspects of preventing domestic violence, with a focus on isolating perpetrators from victims.
Career She has been a lecturer at Gender Studies at the University of Warsaw and at the Gender Mainstreaming postgraduate studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences. She has authored publications on domestic violence, equal treatment, and discrimination.
From 2002 to 2005, she worked in the Secretariat of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men, when this function was held by Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka. Spurek dealt with i.a. the government bill on counteracting domestic violence. In 2005, she began working with Magdalena Środa as her spokesperson. In the years 2008–2015, she was a member of the Team for the European Court of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the years 2010–2012, Spurek was a representative of the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in the Committee for the Protection of Rights. Until 2014, she was an advisor to the Polish Prime Minister in the Legal Department of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. Until June 2015, she was the deputy head of the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment and was responsible, among other things, for coordinating government work on the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. On 22 September 2015, she became the Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights for Equal Treatment with the Polish Ombudsman. She resigned from this position on 28 February 2019, due to plans for political involvement.
Spurek is on the Expert Board of the European Vegan Summit.
In 2022, as part of her parliamentary program "Wolni od Ferm" (Free from Farms), she published a free expert study "Smród, krew i łzy. Włącz myślenie, bądź zmianą" (Stench, blood and tears. Turn on your thinking, be the change), which focuses on the impact of factory farms and the livestock sector in Poland on the environment, human rights and animal rights.
Since September 2024, she is a fellow with Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars think tank, researching in online violence against women.
Social activism She is co-founder of the first vegan think-tank in Poland, Green REV Institute. Since 2021, she has been publishing a podcast Prawo Spurek (Spurek's Law), in which she raises the problem of violating the rights of women, animals and minorities.
In March 2019, together with her partner Marcin Anaszewicz, Spurek published the book Związek partnerski, rozmowy o Polsce (Domestic Partnerships, Talks about Poland, 2019), and all the profit from the sale of the book is transferred to the foundation International Movement for Animals Viva!.
Women's rights Expert of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EU), Gender Equality Unit (CoE) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNDP). From 2017 to 2019, she was a member of the board of directors of Equinet. Until 2019, she was an honorary member of the Program Council of the Femfund Feminist Fund, which raises funds and awards grants to feminist organizations.
Since 2019, he has been participating in the celebration of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. In 2021, on this occasion, she published the free publication "Nasza Konwencja" (Our Convention), which is the first full edition of the Istanbul Convention in Polish. In 2022, she dedicated her social campaign to cyberbullying against women. In the video spot, she posted real comments and threats that she had received under her posts on social media. On the occasion of the 16 Days, she twice sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, drawing attention to the problem of violence against women and indicating preventive and assistance legal and non-legal measures that should be considered by the European Commission.
Spurek supported the Black Protest in Poland in 2020.
She described cyberviolence against women as "a new face of an old problem". Spurek emphasizes that men also experience this form of violence, but she wants to draw attention to the scale and nature of violence experienced by women – she says that it is different, pointing out that women are attacked for their appearance, private, family and intimate life, they are also threatened with sexual violence, which men do not usually experience.
The issue of violence Spurek appeals to fight violence by changing the protection system. One of the reforms she has proposed is to transfer the responsibility for forensic examination from the victim to law enforcement agencies. She has pointed out that there is a need to raise public awareness and educate services that intervene in cases of violence, especially domestic violence. She calls for systematizing the help that victims can count on – legal, psychological and administrative assistance. As Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights, Spurek drew attention to the problem of violence experienced by children and the problem of corporal punishment. She has also raised this subject after leaving this position and later, as a politician.
In 2019, in her campaign as part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, she admitted that she had been a victim of violence as a child.
She called for the criminalisation of any form of cyberviolence in all Member States.
Minority and LGBTQIA+ rights She regularly participates in equality marches in Poland. She actively works for the rights of minorities, including LGBTQIA+ people. She demands a recognition of their rights, including marriage equality, the right to adoption, modern regulations on gender recognition or gender reassignment, good anti-discrimination education and protection against hate speech. During the equality march in Szczecin in 2022, Spurek stated that "a decent person, every politician should stand here – where respect and acceptance are". She also added that every person at the head of an opposition party with ambitions to repair Poland "after the Law and Justice party" (PIS) has a duty to stand shoulder to shoulder with people whose rights are violated – gays, lesbians and transgender people.
Animal rights
Sylwia Spurek declares herself a vegan and an animal rights activist. She promotes a language that emphasizes the autonomy and subjectivity of animals.
Climate education In March 2024, together with multiple experts, Spurek appealed to the Minister of National Education Barbara Nowacka to introduce elements of environmental science, animal rights and sustainable development into school curricula and textbooks. Arguing for the need for such solutions, Spurek wrote: "Climate, environmental and animal rights education should be an integral part of curricula so that young people can understand the relationship between human actions and climate change and see how their own decisions and behaviors affect the environment. Schools should promote sustainable practices, teach about the greenhouse effect, renewable energy sources, biodiversity protection, a sustainable food system and animal rights, including the so-called farm animals."
Commemoration of the Victims of the So-Called Montreal Massacre In April 2024, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary, she initiated a commemoration for the victims of the so-called Montreal Massacre, including the only Polish victim, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz from Wrocław, who, along with eleven other women, was killed by the attacker Marc Lépine in 1989. The attacker was motivated by hatred of women. Spurek's open letter to the Mayor of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk, and the Rector of the University of Economics in Wrocław, Prof. Andrzej Kaleta, was supported by, among others, the Canadian Ambassador to Poland, Catherine Godin, founder of the "Różowa Skrzyneczka" Foundation, Adrianna Klimaszewska, Prof. Maria Wanda Kopertyńska, Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak, Dr. Aleksandra Przegalińska, and Olga Tokarczuk.
Political career At the beginning of March 2019, Spurek became involved in the political project of Robert Biedroń – the Spring party. Spurek was elected in the 2019 European parliamentary election from Greater Poland – Poznan constituency as a member of the European Parliament, obtaining 55,306 (4.61%) votes – which was the second result in the country. She joined the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). She became a member of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) (until 2020, then a substitute) and the substitute member in the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety(until 2020).
She left Spring on 28 October 2019. As a reason, she indicated the changes done to the party's statutes. Subsequently, she announced that she would from then on sit in the Greens-EFA Group in the European Parliament.
In 2020, she became a vice-chair of the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). Throughout her mandate, she was a member of: the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Association Committee (09.07.2020 – 29.09.2020), the Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia (09.07.2020 – 29.09.2020), the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (09.07.2020 – 29.09.2020), and the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (05.10.2020 – 01.05.2022); and a substitute member of: the Delegation for relations with Canada (02.07.2019 – 29.09.2020), the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (10.02.2020 – 29.09.2020), the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (19.06.2020 – 29.09.2020), Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China (01.10.2020 – 01.05.2022), the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (01.10.2020 – 01.05.2022), and the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (24.03.2022 – 18.07.2023).