GENEVA (4 May 2017) – Poland’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Tuesday, 9 May 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Poland is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 1 to 12 May, which also marks the commencement of the third UPR cycle. Poland’s first and second UPR reviews took place in April 2008 and May 2012, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: the Constitutional Tribunal Act amendments and its impacts on the independence and efficiency of the Tribunal; the limited resources allocated to the NHRI, jeopardizing its efficiency and independence; the excessive use of force by police officers and the excessive use of pre-trial detention; discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, nationality, age, disability and religion; eliminating child poverty and homelessness; ensuring equal access to adequate housing, education, health care and employment, particularly for Roma; the closed detention of asylum seekers and the observance of the the principle of non-refoulement; the investigations into the secret detention and rendition on behalf of a third country; the restrictive abortion regime; and the protection of human rights in relation to mental health treatment.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Poland on 9 May can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/PLSession27.aspx

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 9.00 – 12.30, Tuesday, 9 May (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles. During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Poland will be headed by Ms. Renata Szczech, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Poland are: India, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Hungary.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Poland will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link: https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/27session/Poland/Pages/default.aspx

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Poland at 17.30 on 11 May. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review. The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.

ENDS

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

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