Report of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights on the Activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention ... required to establish its National Preventive Mechanism. These measures are intended to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Government of the Republic of Poland implements numerous recommendations of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights [i.e. the Polish Ombudsman]. However, despite the content of the OPCAT provisions and contrary to the Paris Principles4, from the very beginning of the Commissioner’s work as the National Preventive Mechanism, no sufficient funding has been allocated to the implementation of the Mechanism’s tasks. 2013 was the ninth year of the Commissioner for Human Rights’ work as the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture. Representatives of the Commissioner’s Office carried out 85 unannounced visits to various places of detention across the country. As in the previous years, this publication not only describes the findings of the visits carried out, but also analyses final and valid court judgments that were delivered in 2016 in criminal cases where the use of torture was ascertained. The report describes major findings of the conducted preventive visits and diagnoses the existing systemic problems. Regretfully, numerous systemic problems identified in the last years still remain unsolved, including: the failure to amend the Act of 26 October 1982 on juvenile delinquency proceedings, as had been postulated; the failure to solve the problem of placing persons, for the purpose of sobering up, in police rooms for detained persons; the lack of systemic solutions for pregnant juveniles (residents of juvenile establishments) as well as juvenile mothers and their children. As in the previous years, in places of detention in Poland there occur situations which, regrettably, can be classified as degrading or inhuman treatment or punishment. Experience shows that NPM visits play an important role in preventing torture. Given the fact that the country has approximately 2600 places of detention within the meaning of Article 4 of the OPCAT5, and that the NPM visiting team is currently composed of 10 persons, despite their high commitment the Commissioner for Human Rights is, unfor- The Paris Principles are requirements to be met by human rights institutions. They were adopted by the UN in 1993. The main requirements to be met are independence and pluralism. 5 According to Article 4(1) of the OPCAT, a place of detention is any place under its jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its consent or acquiescence. 4 6