Human Rights Committee considers report of Poland

Human Rights Committee
13 October 2010

The Human Rights Committee has considered the sixth periodic report of Poland on how that country implements the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Igor Dzialuk, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Justice of Poland, presenting the report, said the Government of Poland had considered with the utmost attention the concluding observations issued by the Committee upon the preceding report of Poland. The Government had made efforts to implement the recommendations of the Committee, treating them as guidelines during the creation of its policy of recognition of and respect for human rights. In the period covered by the report and in the following years, the Government had taken a number of initiatives aiming to enhance the guarantees of compliance with the rights and provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Government took a number of initiatives furthering the implementation of the idea of equal status of women and men in public and professional life, including a number of initiatives to improve the position of women in the labour market.

The delegation responded to a number of questions and issues raised by Committee Experts, including the extent to which, if at all, the actual case law of the Committee was considered when the Covenant itself was invoked as this was a matter of interest, and asked for further details in this regard. Speakers also raised the need to educate the Polish people with regard to tolerance, and asked for more information on this, specifically on the implementation of programmes to combat racism and xenophobia, in particular with regard to the Roma community, which was the subject of stigmatisation and was the most threatened community in Poland. Did the Government intend to do more to support civil society with regard to efforts to reduce gender discrimination, an Expert asked, adding a request for the reasons between the wide disparity between the participation of men and women in politics, as well as in high-ranking public positions.

Experts also raised another series of questions and issues, including on the detention of undocumented migrants. An Expert asked whether the State party considered alternative measures, such as restricting them to specific areas, and to what extent was this used, further, what was the length of time for which a foreigner could be held whilst awaiting deportation, as it appeared that this could take place indefinitely. The Ombudsman for Children had played an important role in many different respects, an Expert noted, and other United Nations bodies had urged the Government to support his role in combating violence, ill-treatment, and sexual exploitation of children. The issue of transitional justice was also raised by an Expert, who said the dilemma that post-Communist countries had to face was what to do in this regard, noting that measures should be taken against crimes taken during the totalitarian regime, as such crimes had been equated with crimes against humanity.

The delegation of Poland also contained representatives of the Ministries of Justice, Labour and Social Policy, Internal Affairs and Administration, Health, National Education, the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Ombudsman for Children. Also present were representatives from the Permanent Mission of Poland to the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Central Board of the Prison Service, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Office for Foreigners, and the Bureau of the Commissioner of Patients' Rights Protection.

The next meeting of the Committee will be at 3 p.m. this afternoon, when it will take up the sixth periodic report of Jordan (CCPR/C/JOR/4).

Report of Poland

The sixth periodic report of Poland (CCPR/C/POL/6) says Poland, a democratic state of law, guarantees all persons within its territory and under its jurisdiction a full protection of rights and freedoms granted by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. According to the Constitution, monitoring the observance of human rights is vested with two authorities, namely the Ombudsman and the Ombudsman for Children. Coordination of actions related to the social status of women and the family and the implementation of tasks aiming at the prevention of all forms of discrimination is entrusted to the Department for Women, the Family and Prevention of Discrimination. The interpretation principles stipulated in Article 5 of the Covenant are fully respected by Poland. No human right inscribed in the Polish legal order has been excluded, restricted or suspended because the Covenant does not recognise such rights or grants them to a lesser extent.

Poland protects the life and health of the human being. Such protection is guaranteed by the provisions of the Constitution and the Law of 7 January 1993 on family planning, protection of the human foetus and criteria for the admissibility of abortion. The preamble to the act stipulates that life is the fundamental good of the human being, and concern with human life and health is one of the fundamental obligations of the state, society and citizen. Action has been taken to ensure that women who can abort their pregnancy under Polish law may terminate pregnancy without additional difficulties. Pursuant to the Law of August 2004 on health care services financed from public resources, people have the right to health care services meant to preserve health, prevention of illnesses and injuries, early detection of illnesses, treatment, nursing and prevention of disability and its limitation.

The Law of 2005 on preventing domestic violence is to ensure a heightened efficacy of prevention and elimination of negative social phenomena related to violence against family members. The National Programme for Crime Victims is to be a comprehensive and interdisciplinary support programme targeted at all groups of crime victims, including victims of domestic violence. It is to be rooted in a particular national system that meets the basic European Union standards (as to content and accommodation base) of providing assistance to victims of crimes. All training programmes for officers of the Police stress a proper performance of professional duties by the officer of the Police, including also the development of an adequate attitude among the officers. At each level of training attention is paid to professional ethics and human rights, with special emphasis on the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. With regard to human trafficking, according to data obtained by the Government, Poland is both a country of origin and a transit and destination country for women and children from Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria; they are sold for the purpose of providing sexual services. Having regard to the above and being aware of the danger concomitant with the increase of trafficking in human beings in Europe and worldwide, legislative, institutional and preventive measures are taken to combat it.

Presentation of Report

IGOR DZIALUK, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice of Poland, presenting the report, said the report covered the period up to October 2008, but he would exceed that period in bringing to the Committee's attention the facts, amendments and events accomplished after that date, convinced that such an approach would give a more dynamic picture of progress made to date in protection of human rights. The separation of the capacities of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General was a systemic change of major significance with regard to Poland's penal policy. The Ministry of Justice had also set up at the end of last year a special Department of Human Rights, one of whose most important tasks was to develop and implement human rights standards and to provide to the Minister of Justice a monitoring and filtering mechanism.

The Government of Poland had considered with the utmost attention the concluding observations issued by the Committee upon the preceding report of Poland. The Government had made efforts to implement the recommendations of the Committee, treating them as guidelines during the creation of its policy of recognition of and respect for human rights. In the period covered by the report and in the following years, the Government had taken a number of initiatives aiming to enhance the guarantees of compliance with the rights and provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2008, as a token of the Government's special commitment to ensuring non-discrimination, the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment was set up, introducing a new quality into the State's policy on anti-discrimination issues, as it focused all aspects of this policy in the one area.

Poland was one of the few States which, in collaboration with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, had successfully carried out a programme for law enforcement officers, mainly from the Police, with regard to combating hate crimes. A law on national and ethnic minorities and the regional language had been passed in 2005, making it possible to use the languages of national and ethnic minorities in contacts with local authorities. The Government was greatly committed to action aiming at full integration of the Roma community. The Government took a number of initiatives furthering the implementation of the idea of equal status of women and men in public and professional life, including a number of initiatives to improve the position of women in the labour market. In recent years, Poland had greatly enhanced the protection of children's rights. Questions related to domestic violence were one of the major priorities of the Government's policy, and a law was passed in 2005 on preventing violence in the family and a National Programme to Prevent Domestic Violence was initiated in 2006. The past few years had seen a significant drop in the number of persons under temporary detention. The Penal Code now contained a definition of the crime of trafficking in human beings.

Replies to the List of Issues

The delegation of Poland then presented replies to the List of Issues of the Human Rights Committee, saying, among other things, that Polish courts often invoked the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, more often than they did the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, showing their commitment to human rights standards. There were a number of measures to eliminate racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia from public life, and the diversity of the measures taken had proved to be a great success, such as allowing school curriculum to study xenophobic attitudes. There was a network of Plenipotentiaries for the protection of human rights in the police and among border guards. There were increased numbers of court rulings invoking provisions of the Criminal Code on xenophobic or racist crimes.

There were a number of training services dedicated to the police, health workers and others on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues, including on discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Constitution guaranteed equal access to labour and to salaries, and accession to the European Union had accelerated legal guarantees for equal treatment. The activity rate for women in Poland had increased since 2007, before which it was decreasing. The Polish experience showed that media campaigns contributed to lasting changes with regard to gender stereotypes and improved the status of women. Efforts in this regard included research, training and media campaigns. Due to difficulties in analyses of the phenomenon in Poland, there was no way to determine the number of illegal abortions, but in 2008 there were no deaths of women due to abortion. There was access to family planning services - hormonal contraceptives could be provided by any physician and were fully available to couples. The most popular contraceptives were condoms, followed by IUDs, and hormonal contraception.

There was a monitoring system for improper conduct of the police force, and this was monitored by the Ombudsman. There were a number of training sessions linked to court rulings. Good cooperation with non-governmental organizations had contributed to a higher standard of support to victims of trafficking, the delegation said. A National Consultation Centre for victims of trafficking had been established.

Questions by Experts

In a first round of questions and comments, Experts said, among other things, the extent to which, if at all, the actual case law of the Committee was considered when the Covenant itself was invoked was a matter of interest, and asked for further details in this regard. With regard to terrorism, Experts were grateful for the information received, and asked whether, essentially, apart from the new Terrorism Financing legislation, there was no definition of terrorism and asked how terrorist offences would be identified and punished. States had to make a number of adjustments with regard to keeping people in secret detention, measures should be considered with regard to improving the rights of non-residents who were being deported for terrorist contacts or activity. An Expert also expressed concern for the responses given under the item on non-discrimination, and asked how the National Programme for counteracting racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance would be assessed, as it was easy to launch a programme, but there needed to be monitoring and follow-up. Other speakers also raised the need to educate the Polish people with regard to tolerance, and asked for more information on this, specifically on the implementation of programmes to combat racism and xenophobia, in particular with regard to the Roma community, which were the subject of stigmatisation and were the most threatened community in Poland.

Other issues raised by Experts included what prosecutions had occurred and approaches were used to identify issues linked to discrimination; further, what was done with regard to the victim. It was essential for there to be legislation, but the criminal solution was a crisis solution - it was necessary to have such laws on the books, but they were always insufficient, especially if they were not accompanied by a national strategy aiming at educating the country's citizens. What were the reasons for refusal to an asylum seekers, an Expert asked, also asking what guarantees there were for the principle of non-refoulement, and what cooperation existed between the public authorities acting in this regard and the regional bureau of the Refugees Council. Another Expert asked what was the reason for the delay for Poland's ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. Which specific refugee centres had been given the extra facilities, how accessible were they, and did they have the capacity to meet demand was also an issue of interest. Did the Government intend to do more to support civil society with regard to efforts to reduce gender discrimination, an Expert asked, adding a request for the reasons between the wide disparity between the participation of men and women in politics, as well as in high-ranking public positions.

Response by Delegation

Responding to these questions and issues, the delegation said when it came to case law of the Committee, it should be invoked in Polish courts - there should be nothing preventing that, and Polish courts might actually invoke the experience of the Committee and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as they did the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. It was true that the courts used the former less often than that latter. Judges should invoke the provisions of the Covenant and the decisions of the Committee more often, and this stood a good chance, as, in the training programmes for judges and public prosecutors there was a special module on the Covenant and the claims that could be made thereunder. The Ministry of Justice of Poland also contained information on international human rights instruments.

On the definition of the act of terrorism and the special acts on terrorism, the delegation said there was no separate regulation dealing with acts of terrorism - in 2004, Poland adopted, after the Framework Decision of the European Union on combating terrorism, a definition of an offence of a terrorist nature, which had been introduced into the Penal Code, but had not led to a comprehensive new law on combating terrorism. Combating this crime was based on general principles, and Poland did not differentiate between persons suspected of a terrorist act and others with regard to judicial proceedings. The Penal Code also contained a provision on the crime of financing terrorism.

The files of court cases were openly accessible - they could be made confidential due to important interest of the State, but only under supervision of the Court. Racist features of crime did influence the penalisation of an act, and a racially-motivated offence was penalised as such. Content that incited hatred or symbols of Nazism or other totalitarian regimes were not allowed. There were educational programmes addressed to the general public, and the results were very promising. There were court rulings which included the publication in the media of the perpetrators of racially-motivated crimes.

There were 13,000 persons of Roma nationality in the country, 6,000 of which used the language at home. There was no information on itinerant Roma, as Poland did not allow the collection of information on ethnic origin. There were programmes for the assistance of the education of the Roma. The result of this nation-wide programme was increased attendance of Roma schoolchildren, an increasing number of Roma students in colleges and Universities, and this should lead to a substantive improvement in their situation, as well as a change in the general perception of their situation and status. The protection of cemeteries of national and ethnic minorities required an ongoing collaboration between guardians of cemeteries and the police force, which latter had increased patrols around cemeteries, and there had been an exchange of information. There was a list of places that were of particular importance to ethnic minorities, the delegation said.

On trafficking in human beings and the definition thereof, the amendment to the Penal Code which came into force in November 2009 consisted of the introduction of the definition into the system and did not change the penalisation of illegal adoption. A formal transfer of provisions from one part of the criminal code, from offences to public order to a section on offences against the family and care, did not influence the adoption of the law. The relevant article penalised activity consisting in organising illegal adoption. As this offence was not committed to exploit another person, it was penalised differently from trafficking in human beings. There was a programme to legalise the stay of victims of a crime in Poland - the victim had to sever contact with the perpetrators of their trafficking, had to appeal to law enforcement agencies, but did not have to at once say that they would cooperate with the police. They did have to agree in the long run, however. If the victim did not want to be identified by the law-enforcement agencies, there was a special programme, in operation since 2005, of voluntary return, in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration.

On the rights of persons with disabilities, the delegation said a law was in progress, and the Government had already adopted a list of amendments required to domestic legislation. The basis for refusal to grant refugee status was that the applicant did not fulfil the conditions in the Geneva Convention and had not proved conclusively that they were persecuted in their country of origin for a range of reasons including race, ethnicity and political views. There were other cases when a refugee did not get refugee status due to, while meeting the preconditions for refugee status, they had perpetrated acts that were crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. In such cases they were not granted refugee status, and their application was considered for some other kind of protection, such as supplementary protection or tolerated stay. Only in a situation where none of the three protective measures were granted was the decision taken to deport an individual. When it came to being reunited with a member of the family in another European Union State, there was such a possibility, and applicants were informed of this. Costs of reunification were born by the State of Poland.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy representative said there was a programme for the employment of women, including for mothers, people from rural areas, those over 50, and those at risk of social exclusion, including due to disabilities. On the civic draft law on parity and quotas in electoral lists, it was currently being reviewed in the Parliament, and at the last session, deputies had decided that at least 35 per cent of places on electoral lists had to be filled by women, and even though the law was not yet in force, political parties had agreed to apply it in upcoming elections. On combating domestic violence, the amended law that entered into force on 1 August 2010 envisaged new powers for police officers when it came to the arrest of perpetrators of crimes. The police were obliged to arrest the perpetrators of domestic violence if the latter used a dangerous object such as a weapon or knife. They were also entitled to arrest a suspect if there was a justifiable suspicion that he or she had committed an act of domestic violence.

When it came to the Government's action to enhance women who could abort to avail themselves of this right, the delegation said that a few times, the meetings of the National Body to monitor gynaecologists had discussed this right and the proper application of the so-called conscience cause, and the Minister of Health had addressed the different Governors of the 16 provinces of Poland to ensure that it was applied properly. Women in hospitals were also given advice on this issue. It was possible to appeal the decision of a doctor to not perform an abortion. With regard to the conscience clause, apart from raising awareness of doctors as to when the clause could be used, there were a number of initiatives. The standard of perinatal care required that the medical file of a pregnant women contained entries on her right to prenatal testing. When it came to the use of contraceptives in Poland, it was true that when analysing the costs of available contraceptives, it seemed that the economic barriers were not excessive. However, only hormonal contraceptives called for the supervision of a physician and was bought on prescription. The morning-after Pill was available, but was rather more expensive. Non-governmental organizations estimated that there were from 80,000 to 150,000 cases of illegal abortions in Poland throughout the period of the operation of the law. There was a new institution of Ombudsman for Patient's Rights, and to date no complaint had been filed with that body.

On complaints against police officers, the delegation said that from the period of 1 January 2010 to 1 September 2010, the Ombudsman who received complaints on this had received 83 cases and 93 complaints, including unjustifiable use of physical coercion measures, physical or mental violence, and the Ombudsman had already recognized 22 of these cases. Poland had worked out its own unique model of conduct with regard to juveniles who violated the law, and this model excluded that a juvenile could be guilty of a crime, as age excluded a person from being guilty. Proceedings in cases related to juveniles were always conducted by Family Courts, and as a result, proceedings or explanatory proceedings meant to establish whether there were any circumstances that would confirm the juvenile having committed an offence were overseen by a Family Judge, and it was the latter who made the decision on instituting proceedings. Nevertheless, in exceptional cases, hearings of juveniles could be conducted by the police- but at all times, in the presence of parents, a legal guardian, an advocate or defence council. Where this was impossible, the police had to call in a teacher, a representative of the country centre for assistance to the family or a representative of a social organization. Despite such general safeguards, there could be cases of improper conduct by the police with regard to juveniles - there were reports of four such cases, filed with the Ombudsman for Children, and they were currently being clarified.

In response to a question, the delegation said that in the Polish penitentiary system, there was a monitoring system, recording the behaviour of those deprived of liberty exclusively in order to improve their security. Last year, there were over 200 cases in which thanks to the monitoring of behaviour and a prompt reaction of prison service guards, prisoners who had tried to commit suicide were resuscitated.

On same-sex marriages conducted outside Poland, article 18 of the Constitution set out that marriage was a union of man and woman, and as a result, Polish law made it impossible to recognize a civil partnership constituted in another State, even if the law of that country allowed such a marriage. On hate speech in the context of sexual orientation, discrimination activities, irrespective of their grounds, were irreconcilable with the fundamental principle that was the protection of the inalienable dignity of the human being, and this was enshrined in article 30 of the Constitution. In Polish law, there was a guarantee of a proper scope of efficient protection against discriminatory behaviour on grounds of gender or sexual orientation, and despite that the Penal Code did not really isolate offences related to hate speech as a separate crime. In other crimes, such as defamation or threats, each person could be protected. Today, the general public was much more aware of discrimination than it had been a few years ago, and this was partially due to the Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment. On the basis of Polish legislation, when it came to employment, the question of sexual orientation was inadmissible, and a homosexual teacher in a Catholic school was fully protected by the Labour Code, for example. The death penalty had been abolished for all offences in 1997, the delegation said.

In response to brief follow-up questions, the delegation said with regard to crimes of terrorist nature and the application of provisions in courts, the definition of an act of a terrorist nature had some very general conditions that related to individual types of so-called prohibited acts. This applied to a threat against many people which resulted in severe disturbances in the economy and political systems, and there was thus a wide scope of prohibited acts in the Penal Code, and when these conditions were met, they could be treated as acts of a terrorist nature. Polish authorities had not identified any case that met the criteria of a crime of a terrorist nature, and as such no indictments had been delivered. If a foreigner had filed for refugee status, then the execution of a decision of deportation was postponed. On accessibility of documentation, this was possible for those who had a special certificate to access classified documents, which could be issued to legal counsellors and advocates and to defence attorneys representing a foreigner. The State had begun to collect statistics on those victims of trafficking who were helped by a particular programme, and by analysing this, the State would be able to provide better and stronger protection to these victims.

Response to List of Issues

Resuming the presentation of replies to the List of Issues, the delegation said the Polish Prosecution Authority was conducting investigation into a case of transfer of detainees to a third country in the context of counter-terrorism measures, an offence under article 231 of the Penal Code, namely officials going beyond their mandate. Activities implemented during the course of the investigation related to the verification of information on this. The authorities were treating the investigation seriously and with due diligence, and it was being conducted at the highest level through the Appellate Court, and under the personal and direct supervision of the central authority of the General Public Prosecution Authority. On legislative and other steps taken to reduce the length of pre-trial detention, the delegation said there were efforts in this regard, with visible results - there were a lower number of cases of temporary detention and delayed proceedings. In 2009, there were roughly 4,000 complaints, mainly due to unreasonable duration of criminal proceedings.

On overcrowding in Polish prisons, as a result of activities undertaken by the Government, this problem had been eliminated in detention facilities thanks to, among other solutions, the introduction into legislation of electronic surveillance. Detainees could lodge complaints either directly or indirectly- there was no censorship on their complaints, and they could be lodged in the absence of prison officers. With a view to streamlining correspondence on these issues, in each penitentiary facility or correctional facility, there was a special box in which complaints could be dropped, addressed to such bodies as, for example, the European Court of Human Rights. On the effects of the introduction of the law on national and ethnic minorities, the law made it possible to use their languages and the regional languages as secondary languages in communes, and these languages had been entered into the registers of these communes. This gave people the right to contact the authorities of a given commune, both orally and in writing, in one of the registered languages. The law also envisaged the possibility of using place names in Polish as well as in minority languages and regional languages, including in the alphabet of that minority.

Questions by Experts

Experts then raised another series of questions and issues, including when would there be a result on the ongoing investigation on transfer of detainees to a third country and when would the issue move to trial, as there were indications that there had indeed been a secret prison which was dealt with without civil control. It would be embarrassing if it transpired that prisoners now in the United States were shown to have been present at that location. There had been great improvement with regard to pre-trial detention- the credit appeared to go to monitoring by the Ministry of Justice over the courts, and Experts had some problems in squaring this with the maintenance of independence of the courts. There remained a discrepancy with regard to levels of compensation granted on the national level and that provided by international bodies such as the Strasburg Courts. On the detention of undocumented migrants, an Expert asked whether the State party considered alternative measures, such as restricting them to specific areas, and to what extent was this used, further, what was the length of time for which a foreigner could be held whilst awaiting deportation, as it appeared that this could take place indefinitely. An Expert asked why minorities continued to address authorities in their communes in Polish, and whether this was due to a lack of awareness, and if so, did the State Party plan any redressing measures.

In further issues, Experts raised the freedom of speech of journalists, noting that the registration procedure in their regard could have turned into a witch-hunt. Efforts had to be made to ensure that investigation into the archives of the Communist period did not have negative social effects, in particular with regard to the independence of the media and of Universities. The legal basis for visits to incarcerated minors was also of interest, with an Expert asking whether there had been cases of banning of these visits, and what was done to oversee those who could deny minors contact with their families. The Ombudsman for Children had played an important role in many different respects, an Expert noted, and other United Nations bodies had urged the Government to support his role in combating violence, ill-treatment, and sexual exploitation of children. An Expert also asked for more information on criminal responsibility of institutions when it came to violence against children. The issue of transitional justice was also raised by an Expert, who said the dilemma that post-Communist countries had to face was what to do in this regard, noting that it was maybe a good idea to install such a process even at such a late date, to ensure that measures were taken against crimes taken during the totalitarian regime, as such crimes had been equated with crimes against humanity.

Response by Delegation

Due to a lack of time to respond to these issues and others, the delegation responded briefly, saying that the Government was working on a draft to cover slander in the media, but could not promise that it would be successful, although efforts were underway to amend legislation. Its application had been streamlined and was more in line with the guidelines of the Committee. Disclosure of information on public personages that could have been ruled slander before had now been ruled to always be in the public interest. The delegation confirmed that the rules of precedence inscribed in the Polish legal system were as Experts had described - international law, to be directly applicable in the system, needed to be ratified, and this was the case for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as other human rights conventions.

The Polish Government would do everything it could do in its power to conclude the investigation of allegations of cases of transfer of detainees to third-party countries in the shortest possible period of time. Poland was not the country that would have adopted the French attitude of one uniform professional corps of judges and prosecutors - these were separate professions, the delegation said, and had adopted a pragmatic attitude in this regard, in particular in the context of training, where, if issues overlapped, then trainings could be held jointly - but generally they were held separately. Only the first year of training for judges and prosecutors was held jointly, as it covered general matters such as international humanitarian law; after that it divided and was held separately. It was, on the other hand, easy to move from one profession to the other.

On the duration of pre-trial detention and the reasons why this was diminishing, both the report and the written replies listed the action taken by the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary in this respect, and they could be divided into objective and subjective reasons. One of the former was a steady decrease in the crime rate in Poland, which resulted in a decrease in the number of temporary detentions. Naturally, the decrease in the crime rate in Poland was also a result of the implementation of the criminal policy of the State. On subjective reasons, these were by and large the activities of the Ministry of Justice, training exercises for judges and prosecutors which caused a marked change in their perspectives, and others.

Work was underway to amend the law on assemblies, and the draft envisaged the shortening of pre-event periods to allow all the stages of the appeals procedure before a given event to be fulfilled before the envisaged date for an event arrived. With regard to minority languages, the law contained the principles of the European Union Framework Convention on minorities, which said that an auxiliary language should be introduced where it was desirable, necessary, and possible. One of the reasons for the introduction of an auxiliary language would be living in a territory or commune that contained over 20 per cent of the population as members of the minority using the auxiliary language. The commune could request entry on the Official Register of Communes using an auxiliary language. There were 54 communes meeting these criteria - out of these, 30 had filed applications for being entered into the Register and had been listed. The Roma were an ethnic minority and were subject to protection just as were other ethnic and other minorities in Poland - there was a programme for the Roma that was financed from the State budget and partly by local and regional Governments and by European Union money.

On overcrowding in prisons, a law on electronic surveillance and on having less strict penalties had helped, the delegation said. What the Government had in mind was to return prisoners to society, and this strategy worked through creating new opportunities for the prisoner. Correspondence was only opened in presence of the prisoner and only if the prison services suspected that it contained prohibited objects. Contact with the family was assured to prisoners, and family visitations were held in special rooms where children could play, and sometimes bars were not used in those rooms so as not to upset children. The absolute priority was contact with the family- if a prisoner wished to send a letter to the family and did not have money for the stamp, the prison service provided this free of charge.

Further answers would be provided in writing, Mr. Dzialuk said.

Concluding Remarks

IGOR DZIALUK, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Justice of Poland, in concluding remarks, thanked the members of the Committee for the consideration of the sixth periodic report and the open discussion. It was the attitude of the Government of Poland to accept this kind of exchange of views as a discussion that enriched the way it perceived what it actually did at home. He regretted the time constraints restricted the end of the discussion. Poland would wait for the concluding remarks of the Committee, and would take them on board. The delegation had tried to convince the members of the Committee that there were no systemic disagreements with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and had also tried to reiterate that there were remedies to prevent and divert incidental acts that may be perceived as not being in line with the Covenant.

YUJI IWASAWA, Committee Chairperson, said he very much regretted that there had been insufficient time to complete the dialogue, but the delegation could see that the Experts were very interested in the situation of Poland, as could be seen by the number of questions. He was grateful to the delegation for being frank and sincere in responding to the questions- it had been a good and constructive dialogue, and he hoped that Poland would provide the further information in writing in time for the Committee to take it into consideration.
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