Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011 the Prevention Bureau of the General Police Headquarters and of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration presented their joint opinion on amending Article 39 of the Act of 26 October 1982 on upbringing in sobriety and preventing alcoholism10, and an opinion on liquidation of sobering stations and placing intoxicated people in Police facilities instead. A representative of the NPM participated in the session of the Social Council at the Human Rights Defender held on 17 June 2011. One of the items on the agenda was the decrease in the employment of the detainees employment and their difficult social situation after leaving prisons. During the session, it was emphasised that the current penal policy required a reform. To that end, the Human Rights Defender suggested starting cooperation with court presidents and organising trainings for judges. On 3 November 2011, the Office of the HRD organised a conference devoted to discussing the Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2010, during which major conclusions and recommendations as to the NPM’s operation were presented. The meeting was attended, inter alia, by representatives of ministries, General Police Headquarters, Border Guard, Prison Service, NGOs and the academia. In order to disseminate information on the NPM, representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism participated in a cycle of regional conferences on the “Use and execution of educative measures, including the temporary measure, in the context of the specific nature of youth care centres and youth sociotherapy centres”11 during which they discussed the functioning of the National Preventive Mechanism as the method to improve the quality of work of Youth Care Centres and Youth Sociotherapy Centres. 5. Training of the NPM staff On 20 June 2011, employees of the National Preventive Mechanism Department and a representative of the Coalition for the implementation of the OPCAT took part in a training on personal data anonymisation, organised by representatives of the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data (GIODO). In addition, members of the National Preventive Mechanism and of Departments supporting the NPM attended a training on the “Methods of conducting individual conversations with difficult customers”.12 The 32-hour long workshop was devoted to interpersonal  Dz. U. of 2007, No 70, item 473, as amended.  The cycle of conferences was organised by the Ministry of National Education in cooperation with the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Human Rights Defender, Children’s Rights Defender and Centre for Education Development (ORE). The purpose of the conference was to systematise and disseminate information on the use and execution of educative measures with particular emphasis on educative measures that consist in placing juveniles in youth care centres and youth sociotherapy centres, and the use of a temporary measure pursuant to Article 26 of the Act on proceedings in juveniles cases. The conferences were held in: Warsaw (7-8 April 2011), Poznań (15 September 2011), Kielce (11 October 2011), Olsztyn (21 September 2011), Zamość (7 December 2011), and Wrocław (12 December 2011). 12  The trainings consisted of two modules held on 1-2 July 2011 and 14-15 October 2011. 10 11 16