ENSURING TO DETAINEES THE ACCESS TO A DEFENCE COUNSEL FROM THE BEGINNING OF DETENTION21 The Commissioner for Human Rights did not receive a reply to his intervention letter to the Minister of Justice, which concerned a legislative initiative to guarantee that all persons detained by the police or other authorized services have the possibility to contact a defence counsel from the very beginning of detention. Detainee’s access to a defence counsel from the time of detention is considered a basic guarantee of the prevention of torture, as indicated by relevant international standards, monitoring institutions and experts. Therefore, the Commissioner postulates to introduce such a guarantee in the Polish legal system, and has appealed to the Prime Minister to personally look into the matter. FAILURE TO INCLUDE THE CRIME OF TORTURE AND A DEFINITION OF TORTURE IN THE POLISH LEGISLATION22 Poland still lacks legal instruments to effectively combat torture and illtreatment. Polish penal law does not refer to all components of the definition of torture, as contained in Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture. The law penalizes acts of ill-treatment of citizens by security services or persons acting pursuant to their instructions. However, the regulations fail to refer to involvement of other persons e.g. public officials or persons acting with their implied or tacit consent, as indicated by the UN Convention. Polish regulations do not refer either to the crime of torture or other ill-treatment on the grounds of any form of discrimination. Thus, the Commissioner has requested the Minister of Justice again to include in the Polish legislation a definition of torture as well as penalties for using it. The Ministry has, until now, been of the opinion that the penal law sufficiently implements the country’s relevant international obligations. Therefore, in his intervention the Commissioner indicated instances of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in Poland, diagnosed by the NMPT, and pointed to international institutions’ and organizations’ recommendations on penalizing torture (including the opinion of the OSCE Office for Democratic KMP.570.3.2017 KMP.570.3.2018 21 22 24 PART II – how does the NMPT work?