amendment to the Act on the Police, Border Guard, Military Police and armed forces’ law enforcement bodies34. As a result of the amendment, the terms “body search” and “preventive search” have been precisely defined35. However, the implementing regulations for the Act also need to be amended. At present, no legislative activities are carried out which makes the regulations inconsistent. Legality of patients’ stay in social care homes After 1 January 2018, thanks to the engagement of the Commissioner, numerous amendments were introduced to regulations regarding the rights of residents of social care homes. For instance, the Mental Health Protection Act has been amended. Before the amendment, a legally incapacitated person could not disagree to his/her placement in a social care home. This happened in the case of Mr Kędzior who was placed in such a home at the request of his brother who was his guardian. The case was examined by the European Court of Human Rights which ruled that Poland had violated the provision of Article 5(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights36. In 2016, the issue, following the Commissioner’s application, was also examined by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal . The Tribunal ruled 37 that the possibility for the court to permit a person’s legal guardian to place the incapacitated person in a social care home against his/her will (when the person is able to communicate his/her needs and decisions) constitutes the person’s See: the Act of 14 December 2018 amending the Act on the Police and certain other acts (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 2399). 35 Preventive search is a manual search of a person, his/her clothing, other items worn on his/ her body, and items that the person has with him/her. To this end it is possible to use technical equipment, biochemical tests, trained dogs. The search has to has to be adequate to the circumstances and has to be performed in a manner ensuring the lowest possible violation of the person’s rights. If during the preventive search weapons or other dangerous objects have been discovered, the search shall be followed by body search and the provisions on body search shall apply accordingly. 36 The case Kędzior v. Poland; application no. 45026/07; judgment issued on 16 October 2012 37 The judgment of 28 June 2016, ref. no. K 31/15. 34 Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2018 29