CAT/C/POL/CO/7 to at least 20 years of imprisonment may apply for conditional release from 25 to 35 years; and introduce the penalty of life imprisonment without parole (arts. 2, 4, 11–13 and 16). 14. The Committee calls on the Senate to give careful and thorough consideration to the substance of the amendments to the Penal Code adopted by the Sejm in May 2019, and to their potential implications, including in light of the State party’s international obligations. If adopted, these amendments could, inter alia, give rise to a significant increase in the country’s prison population and would hinder respect for the principle of human dignity and of a humanitarian approach to the treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners, as enshrined in the Constitution of Poland and the international human rights instruments to which it is a party. Fundamental legal safeguards 15. The Committee is concerned: (a) That persons deprived of their liberty continue not to enjoy in practice all the fundamental legal safeguards from the very outset of their deprivation of liberty, such as prompt access to a lawyer or legal adviser before their initial interrogation; (b) That officers in police stations are not aware of their responsibility to provide persons entitled to State-funded legal aid with a list of on-duty attorneys and legal advisers, which can reportedly take days or even weeks, so that public defenders are generally not able to participate in the initial questioning of an arrested person; (c) That deficiencies in the system of police registers result in lawyers having difficulties in locating their clients before their initial interrogation; and that some police stations lack rooms that would guarantee privacy, which obliges lawyers and their clients to meet in corridors and in the presence of police officers; (d) That the Code of Criminal Procedure continues to limit the confidentiality of lawyer-client communication, and that restrictions relating to private communication may last up to 14 days and are not subject to judicial control; (e) That prosecutors may decide that a suspect can be interrogated without the participation of their lawyer; (f) That proposed draft amendments to the Executive Penal Code would limit the access of persons deprived of liberty to lawyers and would introduce body searches that may be considered degrading, including those conducted by persons who are not of the same sex; and that persons deprived of their liberty may not have prompt access to a medical examination (art. 2). 16. The State party should take effective measures to guarantee that all detained persons are afforded, in law and in practice, all fundamental legal safeguards from the very outset of their deprivation of liberty, in accordance with international standards, including the safeguards mentioned in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Committee’s general comment No. 2. In particular, it should: (a) Take effective steps to ensure that all detained persons have prompt access to legal assistance, including on-duty attorneys and legal advisers provided by State-funded legal aid, before their initial interrogation; (b) Ensure that officers in police stations are aware of their responsibility to provide persons entitled to State-funded legal aid with a list of on-duty attorneys and legal advisers; (c) Ensure that deprivations of liberty are recorded in a national register at all stages, including transfers to different facilities, that lawyers and legal advisers have access to such information, and that lawyers and legal advisers are able to obtain prompt access to their clients and communicate with them in private in adequate premises; (d) Review the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure that allow for limits to be placed on the confidentiality of lawyer-client communication; subject 5