CAT/OP/POL/CSPRO/1 I. Introduction 1. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture carried out its first visit to Poland from 8 to 19 July 2018. The Subcommittee met with officials and individuals from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior and Administration, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of National Education, Bureau of the Commissioner for Patients’ Rights, Central Board of Prison Service, Office for Foreigners, General Police Headquarters, Polish Border Guard Headquarters, Military Gendarmerie Headquarters, Regional Court of Warsaw, National Public Prosecutor’s Office, National Preventive Mechanism, Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations and representatives of the civil society (Association for Legal Intervention, International Humanitarian Initiative Foundation, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Polish Centre for Rehabilitation of Tortured and Warsaw Bar Association). The Subcommittee visited also seven correctional institutions, sixteen places of Police detention and four juveniles. Two places of deprivation of liberty were visited jointly by the national preventive mechanism and the Subcommittee. 2. Poland continuously remains open to a fruitful cooperation with the Subcommittee as well as other UN Special Procedures. We strive to achieve the highest standards of protection of human rights in accordance with the international law. 3. Following the visit, on 25 June 2019 the Subcommittee presented the report containing its observations and recommendations addressed to Poland (hereinafter ‘the report’). We welcome this document and wish to present the following substantive comments that present the developments since. II. Overarching Issues A. Legal and Institutional Framework for the Prevention of Torture Definition and criminalisation of torture 4. Para. 35 of the report indicates the need to introduce a regulation on tortures as a separate crime, in line with Article 1, 2 and 4 of the Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 5. According to the Ministry of Justice, the current criminal law regulations in this regard are sufficient to satisfy all international obligations of the Republic of Poland. Polish law includes such crimes as: violation of bodily integrity (Article 217 §1 of the Criminal Code), punishable threats (Article 190 §1 of the Criminal Code), forcing another person with violence or unlawful threat into specific conduct (Article 191 §1 of the Criminal Code), abuse of power by a public officer (Article 231 §1 of the Criminal Code), causing a health impairment (Article 156 and 157 of the Criminal Code), abuse against a dependant (Article 207 §1 of the Criminal Code). Factual circumstances covered by the definition of torture included in the convention may be also classified under Article 245–247 of the Criminal Code, namely influencing a witness, an expert witness or the defendant with the use of violence or threat (Article 245), use of violence or threat to obtain testimonies, evidence, statements or information (Article 246) or abuse against a person deprived of liberty (Article 247). 6. The tortures consisting in actions listed below will be deemed an abuse of power by an officer, and possibly also a violation of bodily integrity: (a) Physical influence not causing an effect (e.g. waterboarding); (b) Psychological treatment other than unlawful threats (e.g. false information on the death of a relative), if it does not concern a person deprived of liberty (Article 247 of the Criminal Code) or is not applied to use specific testimonies, evidence, information or statements (Article 246 of the Criminal Code) or to influence personal sources of evidence (Article 245 of the Criminal Code), therefore, when such treatment is applied, for example, to punish a free person, to intimidate, to exert pressure or for any other purpose arising from discrimination (tortures may be used in the regime of Article 57a of the Criminal Code). 3