Educational activities SOCIAL CAMPAIGN STATE WITHOUT TORTURE In December 2018 the Commissioner for Human Rights launched a social campaign State without torture which was implemented throughout 2019. The partners of the project include the Council of Europe, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights/Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Supreme Bar Council, National Council of Legal Advisors, Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) in Geneva and Kantar Millward Brown. The campaign aims at the initiation of discussion on the problem of torture in Poland and the need to introduce legal regulations constituting effective safeguards. What is of paramount importance is raising the social awareness about what constitutes torture and who may be affected by it. The experience of the NMPT shows, namely, that it is frequently persons with low social awareness, very often minors but also individuals with disabilities who fall victim to torture. It is also vital to build a culture of no tolerance to torture in the society. As part of the campaign the representatives of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture initiated training addressed to members of occupational groups who in their everyday work may encounter victims of torture or other ill-treatment. More than 500 officers completed training as part of cooperation with 8 voivodeship Police headquarters Because in the survey Torture-Poles’ opinions13 as many as 87% of the respondents indicated that after 1989 in Poland there have been cases of torture and the Police was believed to be the perpetrator, it is the police officers that became the main addressee of the above-mentioned training program. In 2019 four employees of the NMPT – Klaudia Kamińska, Aleksandra Osińska, Justyna Zarecka and Michał Żłobecki – held meetings with 15 training groups in 8 Polish cities14. The training was attended by both, officers who on a daily basis perform duty in rooms for detained persons, police emergency centres for children as well as officers in managerial positions, including heads of prevention departments, heads of transport departments as well as municipal and poviat commanders. Discussed topics included, among other things, the definition of torture as well as national and international regulations and standards concerning torture prevention in places of detention and the analysis of selected judicial decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. The representatives of the NMPT also discussed systemic problems and best practices observed during visits. Meetings with officers were based on a dialogue and exchange of experiences. On the one hand, they allowed one to promote the mission of the NMPT and inform about the specific nature of conducted inspection 13 14 14 The survey was conducted at the turn of September and October 2018 by Kantar Millward Brown at the initiative of the Commissioner for Human Rights. Lublin, Rzeszów, Bydgoszcz, Olsztyn, Warszawa, Gdańsk, Kraków, Kielce. PART II – How does the nmpt work?