PART I – What is the NMPT? In 2019 the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture conducted 73 unannounced visits to various types of places of detention as well as 18 training workshops for the representatives of occupational groups who in their everyday work with persons deprived of liberty may encounter victims of torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Organization of work of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture Each State Party shall maintain, designate or establish, at the latest one year after the entry into force of the present Protocol or of its ratification or accession, one or several independent national preventive mechanisms for the prevention of torture at the domestic level. Mechanisms established by decentralized units may be designated as national preventive mechanisms for the purposes of the present Protocol if they are in conformity with its provisions2. The Commissioner for Human Rights is the body which is performing the role of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland. The Commissioner shall perform the role of a visiting body for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (national preventive mechanism) within the meaning of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 18 December 2002 (Journal of Laws [Dz. U.] of 2007, item 192)3. The national mechanism for the prevention of torture is composed of employees of the NMPT Team as well as external specialists. • The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture constitutes one of the departments operating within the Office of the CHR. In 2019, the department’s Team consisted of 10 specialists and an employee working as a secretary. Przemysław Kazimirski is the Director of the NMPT and the supervision over the activities of the Department is exercised by Deputy 2 3 8 Article 17 OPCAT. Article 1(4) of the Act of 15 July 1987 on the Commissioner for Human Rights (consolidated text: Journal of Laws [ Dz. U.] of 2020, item 627). PART I – What is the nmpt?