The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture is composed of
employees of the NMPT Team as well as external experts
• The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture constitutes one
of the departments within the Office of the Commissioner for Human
Rights. In 2018, the department’s Team consisted of 10 specialists
and an employee working as a secretary. Until 8 June 2018, the
Director of the NMPT was Justyna Róża Lewandowska then replaced
by Przemysław Kazimirski who won the competition for the position.
Supervision over the activities of the Department is exercised by Deputy
Commissioner for Human Rights Hanna Machińska, Ph.D. Pursuant
to OPCAT provisions, employees of national preventive mechanisms
should have relevant skills and diversified professional knowledge as
well as constitute a representation of men and women. Staff members
working for the Mechanism have relevant education in the fields of law,
sociology, political sciences, rehabilitation, psychology and criminology.
The NMPT Department is supported by employees of the Commissioner
for Human Rights’ regional representative offices located in Gdańsk,
Wrocław and Katowice. Pursuant to the agreement concluded between
the NMPT and CHR’s regional representatives, in each regional office an
employee has been designated who, apart from working for the office,
also participates in 3 preventive visits under the Mechanism, held in
establishments located in the area for which a given CHR’s representative
is responsible. Moreover, the Head of the Department for Migrant and
National Minorities’ Rights also participates in visits performed under the
Mechanism to closed detention centres for migrants.
• During the visits, the team is supported by external experts: physicians
- psychiatrists, geriatricians, internal medicine doctors as well as
professionals specializing in issues that constitute the focus of NMPT
visits. The focus in 2018 was on psychological assistance offered to foreign
citizens placed in closed detention centres for migrants as well as the
identification of torture victims among residents of those establishments.
The visits were carried out in the presence of a psychologist.
8
PART I – what is the NMPT?