The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF), formerly known as the Open Dialog Foundation (Polish: ), is an international non-governmental organization, founded in 2009 in Poland and currently headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, with international offices in Warsaw, Kyiv and Miami, FL. It conducts research and advocacy on human rights and the rule of law in the post-Soviet area andsince 2018within the European Union.
In 20142016 and again since February 2022 it has focused on delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine and supporting refugees fleeing that country. Since September 2024 the foundation also runs a campaign to deliver bionic prostheses to Ukrainian veterans together with Aether Biomedical. In the winter of 2026 it coordinated the "Warmth from Poland for Kyiv" campaign to deliver power generators to Ukraine struggling with power outages following Russian strikes.
History
ODF was founded in 2009 in Warsaw, Poland and officially registered in 2010 by Lyudmyla Kozlovska, Ukrainian national from Sevastopol, Crimea. Kozlovska moved to Poland after the Orange Revolution in order to study. She had been a civic activist since the age of 13, when she opened the first Ukrainian library in Sevastopol. As a teenager she organized protests under the headquarters of the Russian Federation's Black Sea Fleet.
Kozlovska launched ODF following a human rights forum on Central Asia she had organized in Poland in 2008 with activists from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan and after having met Andrzej Grzyb MEP, who invited her to the European Parliament to speak on human rights in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Initially, ODF based its activities on experiences of student movements and civic organisations that developed from the Orange Revolution.
In 2023 ODF was granted Participatory Status with the Council of Europe, with areas of competence i.a. in democracy, strengthening civil society, human rights, prevention of torture, European integration, rule of law and fighting against corruption.
Activities
Ukraine
ODF became known in Poland following its support for the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine. The foundation organised 3 monitoring missions between November 2013 and January 2014 with Polish MPs Michał Jaros, Tomasz Makowski, Michał Szczerba and Marcin Święcicki and 3 concerts at the Euromaidan. In January 2014 it started a long-term monitoring mission and opened a permanent tent at the Euromaidan with the goal to "monitor the situation, support visits of international observers and share knowledge on the European Union". The mission lasted 56 days and included around 30 volunteers on the ground, with a total of 480 volunteers involved with the foundation between January and April 2014. The ODF tent was the only permanent presence of an NGO from the European Union at the Euromaidan.
ODF organised a mass humanitarian support campaign for the Euromaidan, sending a total of 35 tons of medicine, medical supplies, bulletproof vests and helmets to the protesters, journalists and observers, 10 tons of which went to the Donbas region. The total value of humanitarian aid delivered by ODF to Ukraine in 2014 was over PLN 1.000.000. Following its involvement in Ukraine the foundation became a target for Russian propaganda.
From late February 2014 until early June 2016 ODF run a support centre in central Warsaw for Ukrainian refugees under the name "Ukrainian World". The centre was estimated to have supported over 30.000 people during its functioning. At later stages the centre changed its focus to promoting Ukrainian culture in Poland.
Since 2014 ODF has been campaigning for Russia's release of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko and the imposing of sanctions on Russia following her detention, as well as that of Oleg Sentsov and numerous other Ukrainian war and political prisoners illegally held in Russia.
In October 2016 ODF co-organised a "march of solidarity with Ukraine" in Warsaw.
In October 2019, following his release by Russia after five years in a gulag, Oleg Sentsov was received together with Lyudmyla Kozlovska by French president Emmanuel Macron. During the meeting, the head of the Foundation presented Macron with a list of 86 Ukrainians still imprisoned by Russia.
The foundation has also been advocating for democratic reforms and greater integration of Ukraine and the EU.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, ODF focused on supporting refugees fleeing Ukraine and delivering humanitarian aid, especially defensive equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Until June 2023 ODF has provided aid worth over PLN 35 million.
ODF regularly organises humanitarian missions to the frontlines, including to Bakhmut, together with a group of 5 Polish Members of Parliament, and to Kherson following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, where ODF delivered PLN 100.000 worth of aid from the City of Warsaw. Following the mission, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and ODF's Martin Mycielski were awarded decorations by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The foundation also manages the relocation of refugees to Western countries through an assistance point run at Warsaw's Eastern Railway Station and runs four "Homes for Independent Moms" for Ukrainian refugee women.
Russia The foundation's activities related to Russia started in 2014 and were at first focused on campaigning for the release of political prisoners and prisoners of war following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, most notably pilot Nadiya Savchenko and film director Oleg Sentsov. For this purpose ODF joined other EU and Ukrainian human rights NGOs to organise an international advocacy campaign under the name "#LetMyPeopleGo", with a platform for monitoring and listing the so-called "hostages of the Kremlin" launched with the Center for Civil Liberties / Euromaidan SOS at www.letmypeoplego.org.ua.
In 2018, Swedish publishing house Ariel Förlag published the story of the Russian persecution of Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov and other Kremlin prisoners based on ODF's report.
In November 2018 the Foundation campaigned against the appointment of a Russian general, Alexander Prokopchuk, as Interpol president, joining dozens of other NGOs from around the world and organising a viral social media campaign with Members of the European Parliament called "#InterpolNotForPutin".
As of 2019 ODF has also been campaigning against the renewal of voting rights of the Russian Federation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, for the enforcement of European sanctions against Russia and for introducing a worldwide "Magnitsky Act".
Poland In Poland ODF initially supported the civic opposition movements defending the independent judiciary, especially in mid-2017 during the attempted reform of the Supreme Court and other controversial reforms of the judiciary by the ruling majority. These reforms prompted the European Commission to invoke Article 7 of the European Treaty against Poland, denouncing the reforms as putting the judiciary under the political control of the ruling majority and citing "serious risk [to] the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers". In response to the crisis, on 21 July 2017 ODF Board's Chair Bartosz Kramek published an article on civic disobedience, which was viewed by pro-government media as a call for a revolution and prompted then-foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski to officially request that the article be removed and to instruct fiscal authorities to conduct a "complex fiscal control" of the foundation. In October 2017 the foreign ministry filed a request to the court to forcefully dissolve and replace the foundation's board, but the request was dismissed by the court on 7 December.
ODF's advocacy in Poland focuses on the rule of law and especially the freedom of the judiciary and civic freedoms. ODF's report on cases of persecuted judges and prosecutors in Poland (incl. notable cases such as Igor Tuleya, Waldemar Żurek & ) was included, together with a similar report by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, in the United Nations General Assembly's 41st Human Rights Council's "Report on the independence of judges and lawyers", published on 29 April 2019.
ODF's reports and input were included by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and European Commission (Annual Rule of Law Report, EU Justice Scoreboard). ODF also organises hearings and events with persecuted judges, prosecutors and activists at the OSCE, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and European Parliament.
During President Andrzej Duda's visit to Washington, DC in June 2019, an ODF delegation led by board member Martin Mycielski held meetings at the Capitol, with the State Department and with other US stakeholders to "update them on the state of civic freedoms in Poland, especially the persecution of civic activists" and share most recent reports on Poland. This mission was criticised by Polish pro-government pundits incl. , and Rafał Ziemkiewicz, as well as the Head of the Political Cabinet of the Minister of National Defence Łukasz Kudlicki.
In April and May 2020 the Foundation initiated appeals to the European Commission, calling for the initiation of an infringement procedure due to Poland's persecution of judges, and to the justices of the Supreme Court, calling for them to preserve the independence of the institution. The letters were co-signed by dozens of judicial and bar associations, law professors and public figures from around the world. In June 2020 Martin Mycielski, on behalf of ODF, initiated a follow-up appeal to the EC, signed by law professors as well as judges' and prosecutors' associations, requesting intervention with regard to the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, incl. the case of judge Igor Tuleya, who the authors claimed was persecuted by it.
In October 2020 ODF activists, together with activists from Solidarity Action Brussels, organised a successful campaign to terminate the lease of the Brussels representation of Ordo Iuris. ODF's Martin Mycielski declared on that occasion that "this hateful organisation will never feel welcome in Brussels".
In November 2020 ODF filed a complaint against Ordo Iuris with the Joint EU Transparency Register Secretariat and the European Commission, requesting the removal of the organisation from the register and withdrawal of their right to lobby EU institutions. The authors argued that "an organisation representing the interests of a harmful foreign actor and an adversarial foreign power, concealing that fact, conducting activities undermining the integrity of the EU and damaging its values within at least one Member State, should not be allowed to benefit from an entry in the EU Transparency Register". The complaint was supported by 38 MEPs from the five main political groups, including EP Vice-president Fabio Massimo Castaldo, LGBTI Intergroup Co-chair Terry Reintke, Children's Rights Intergroup Co-chair Saskia Bricmont, Chairwoman of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Evelyn Regner, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence Nathalie Loiseau and Chairwoman of the Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group Sophie in 't Veld. Among Polish MEPs, the letter was signed by Róża Thun (who officially initiated it), Robert Biedroń, Łukasz Kohut and Magdalena Adamowicz.
In January 2021 ODF initiated, together with the Themis Judges' Association, an appeal to the European Commission to apply the conditionality mechanism of linking EU funds to the rule of law criterion for the prosecution of 14 Cracow judges by the National Public Prosecutor's Office. The letter was again signed by dozens of European law experts as well as Polish judges' and prosecutors' associations.