Introduction tunately, unable to guarantee compliance with the minimum international standards of frequency of preventive visits6. Apart from the monitoring of places of detention, the year 2016 was also devoted to strengthening the educational role of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture. In 2016, a series of 16 regional debates organized by the NMPT in capital cities of each of the country’s voivodeships (regions) was started. During the visits, representatives of the NMPT discuss the key issues relating to the operation of places of detention in Poland. The meetings are addressed to representatives of all types of such places, as well as to representatives of public prosecutor’s offices, judicial authorities, voivodeship self-governments and universities. The report is also available on the website of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights (www.rpo.gov.pl.) in English, which makes it possible for international institutions to receive information on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland. I hope that you will find the present Report of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in 2016 an important source of information and that it will contribute to the improvement and proper functioning of the different types of places of detention in our country, in line with the international standards. Adam Bodnar, Ph. D. Commissioner for Human Rights According to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, ad hoc preventive visits under the NPM should be carried out once in several months, and comprehensive visits once in five years. According to minimum standards defined by the APT, comprehensive visits to organizational units of the Police, pre-trial detention centres and to places of detention of people particularly vulnerable to threats or aggression, such as women and foreigners, should be carried out at least once a year. 6 7