COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCLUDES DISCUSSION OF THIRD PERIODIC REPORT OF POLAND

CESCR
29th session
14 November 2002
Morning



The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concluded this morning a two-day review of a fourth periodic report from Poland, with Committee Experts querying a Government delegation on such issues as living conditions of the Roma population, trafficking in women, prostitution, child labour, homelessness, retirement, and the right to strike.
The Committee's official conclusions and recommendations on the report will be issued when the panel's three-week autumn session concludes on 29 November.
Introducing the report, Krzysztof Jakubowski, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said among other things that despite the efforts of successive Governments, there was still a high unemployment rate in Poland -- it currently exceeded 17 per cent. Preparations were under way to make the country ready to absorb European Union structural funds aimed at developing programmes which could prevent unemployment and its negative impacts on society, Mr. Jakubowski said.
Responding to questions put by Committee Experts, the Polish delegation said among other things that although Polish society was dominated by the Catholic Church, the practice of abortion was legal if medical examination proved that the life of the mother was in jeopardy due to pregnancy; if there was a risk to the survival of the foetus; or if the pregnancy was a result of abuse.
Chairing the Polish delegation was Krystyna Tokarska-Biernacik, Under-Secretary of State of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
Other members of the delegation were Krystyna Zurek, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Poland to the United Nations Office at Geneva; Jolanta Lozinska, Director, and Ewa Kapilewicz, Senior Expert, of the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Gender Status; Wieslawa Gorzelana-Galazka, Deputy Director of the Ministry of National Education and Sport; and Hanna Jedras, Senior Expert of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture.
Also, Jerzy Szczerban, Expert at the Ministry of Health; Liliana Pindor, Deputy Director of the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Disabled Persons; Teresa Guzelf, Director of the Department Social Insurance; Krystyna Wiaderny-Bidzinska, Director of the Department of the European Union and International Organizations; Krystyna Wyrwicka, Director of the Department of Social Assistance, Elzbieta Szemplinska, Head of Section, Ewa Rybicka, Senior Expert, Igor Struminski, Senior Expert, and Tomasz Wach, Senior Expert, of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs; and Magdalena Konieczna, Interpreter.
As one of the 145 States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Poland must provide the Committee with periodic reports on efforts to implement the treaty. Governments generally also send delegations to present the reports and to answer questions put by the 18-member Committee.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will spend the first 40 minutes in a private meeting to consider concluding observations on country reports already examined this session before taking up a second periodic report of Georgia (document E/1990/6/Add.31).

Report of Poland
The fourth periodic report of Poland (E/C.12/4/Add.9) provides information on how the State party has sought to implement the provisions of the International Covenant since the country's third periodic report was considered by the Committee in 1998. It notes a fall in the number of unemployed in the 18-34 age group, but remarks that joblessness among the young continues to be a concern.
The 1997 Constitution guarantees the two sexes equal rights in all walks of life, including equal rights to remuneration according to the principle of "equal pay for equal work", according to the report. In many cases, inequalities have resulted from the fact that women more often than men work in areas not connected with production, where wages as a rule are lower. The report notes that there has been controversy over the new old-age pension Act of 17 December 1998, which made it possible for women to retire five years earlier than men, which affected the level of their pensions.
In Poland, about 15 to 25 per cent of the population suffers from mental disorders, and 10 to 20 per cent of children and young adults require psychological or psychiatric care, the report says. The mortality rate has declined, although the rate among males continues to be high. The National Health Programme for the years 1996-2005 is being implemented on the basis of a strategy developed by the World Health Organization.

Presentation of Report
KRZYSZTOF JAKUBOWSKI, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said that despite the efforts of successive Governments, there was still a high unemployment rate in Poland, currently exceeding 17 per cent. During 1999-2001, the number of persons in gainfully employed decreased by 6.9 per cent. Among those out of work, 30 per cent were young people; a high proportion of the unemployed had remained out of work for more than a year. Preparations were under way to prepare the country for the reception of European Union structural funds. Programmes would be developed to prevent unemployment and its negative impacts on the society.
In November 2001, an office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Gender Status was created to promote equal treatment and equal opportunity for women, and to end sex discrimination, Mr. Jakubowski said. As of July 2002, the office's competencies had been extended to cover discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, age and sexual orientation. The Plenipotentiary had also duties to analyze and assess legislative and social matters affecting the implementation of equal status principles.
Mr. Jakubowski said that as of January 1999, new social security legislation had been in effect. The previous repartition system had become unsustainable due to the system's inefficiency and adverse demographic factors. That, however, did not mean that social security protection had been reduced -- it meant only that new sources were being sought to finance social security payments. A "second pillar" had been developed -- capital-based social insurance. The social services had also been undergoing significant changes.
From 1995 to 1998, a number of initiatives had been taken to improve living standards in Poland, the Ambassador said. In 2001, 106,000 new apartments were built -- the highest annual figure since the collapse of the former regime in the 1990s. In recent years, new rental apartments accounted for 10 to 15 per cent of annual housing construction. In view of the high demand for such apartments, new legislation initiatives and actions had been undertaken to create new opportunities to obtain funding for preferential loans. The number of homeless in Poland had been estimated at 40,000.
Signs of declining alcohol consumption among young people had been noted since the beginning of 2000, Mr. Jakubowski said. In 2001, new legislation had entered into force, making the sale of alcohol to minors a crime. The availability and effectiveness of professional therapy and other health services for people suffering from addictions had increased.
Mr. Jakubowski said reform of the educational system had been under way since September 1999; the changes were meant to improve the educational level of the public by granting universal access to secondary and higher education. The reforms also sought to improve the quality of education by introducing changes in the basic curriculum and increasing the guidance role of schools.

Discussion
Responding to questions raised by the Committee Experts under the first cluster of main topics, which included the general legal framework within human rights were protected, non-discrimination, and equality of men and women, the delegation said, among other things, that Poland was not only a transit country but an important target country of residence. During the past year, 1,100 persons had been granted refugee status.
A package of amendments to the labour code had gone into effect in January 2002, providing for equal rights for women and men, the delegation said. The new law included mandatory equal treatment of both sexes in all aspects relating to employment and a ban on any form of discrimination motivated by gender; mandatory equal pay for comparable work; and placement of the burden of proof on the employer in cases where it was charged that he or she had followed discriminatory practices.
Crimes that targeted national minorities were prosecuted, the delegation said. The police were charged with preventing such crimes and arresting their perpetrators. As part of the effort to combat xenophobia and acts of violence against foreigners and national minorities, the police had been taking an active part in carrying out a Government pilot programme for 2003.
The first National Programme for Women had been adopted in 1997 to advance the role and rights of women in the Polish society, the delegation said. A second programme would soon be put in place, once it was adopted by the Government. In addition, a number of programmes had been implemented to promote the status of women.
The delegation said that although Polish society was dominated by the Catholic Church, the practice of abortion was legal if medical examination proved that the life of the mother was in jeopardy due to pregnancy, if there was a risk for the survival of the foetus, or if the pregnancy was a result of an abuse.
The Government of Poland had been cooperating with agencies of the Council of Europe and countries of the European Union to solve the problems of the Roma, the delegation said. Actions had been taken to integrate the Roma into the society, to encourage their participation in social life and to reduce socio-economic differences dividing that group from the rest society. The Government had also taken further action to integrate Roma children by providing them with better educational and vocational training.
The fact that more cases of domestic violence were being reported by victims did not mean that the number of cases was increasing, as had been implied, the delegation said. Because of efforts by the Government which encouraged victims of such violence to speak out, and because there had been more prosecutions of perpetrators, the situation was changing. Many non-governmental organizations also had been encouraging people to denounce incidents of domestic violence.
It was a privilege that a woman could retire at age 60 with her full retirement benefits, the delegation said. Men had to continue to work until the age of 65. However, according to the country's new retirement scheme, women would not receive lower pensions even if they retired earlier than men.
Civil servants were prohibited from striking and from joining trade unions, the delegation said. However, the law 1996 which had restricted the right to strike by civil servants had been slightly softened by a 1998 amendment, which only prohibited the right to form or to join trade unions. A new amendment had been tabled before Parliament to further reinforce the rights of civil servants.
Asked why children were allowed to work despite the prohibition of child labour, the delegation said that due to traditional practices in rural areas, particularly in the agricultural sector, children continued to participate in the work of their parents. In urban areas, some parents allowed their children to do light work to earn pocket money. However, the Government had been campaigning against any employment of children that might contravene the International Labour Office Convention on the minimum age for admission to employment.
The delegation said trafficking in women was not a Polish phenomenon, and since it was also a problem in other countries, it should be dealt with globally. Because the Polish economy was doing relatively well, women from other countries arrived to engage in prostitution. The Government was drafting a new piece of legislation to further combat trafficking in women and prostitution. A new measure had also been taken to fight against crimes relating to trafficking in women. A national programme for women was now being drafted and some chapters were devoted to the fight against trafficking. The scale of trafficking had been surveyed, although there were no firm figure yet available.
Most migrant workers came from the Ukraine and they were not discriminated against either as minorities or migrant workers, the delegation said. Instead, their rights were respected and their working conditions had improved.
The fact that girls could marry at the age 18 and boys could only do so at age 21 was not considered discriminatory by the Polish legal system, the delegation said. Boys were not mature enough to say "yes" to marriage before age 21. Both lawmakers and the society believed that once marriage was contracted, it should be for once and for all.
A special law on minority education had been put in place to regulate schools established for minority children, the delegation said. At present, several schools were run exclusively for Belarussians, Germans, Slovak, Ukrainians, and others. Education was provided in an integrated manner to Roma children because of the difficulties encountered trying to teach in the Romany language -- there were some 30,000 Roma divided into four ethnic groups, each speaking a different language. Any allegation that Roma children were discriminated against in Polish schools was unfounded.


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