employment of convicts but stated that professional activation should more broadly cover people in temporary detention. The Committee called on the Polish government to cause discontinuation of the use of straitjackets in relation to minors as their use is stigmatizing and degrading. As regards psychiatric facilities, the Committee noted that there were many patients in the rooms, called for reducing their numbers and for more friendly decoration of the rooms. When referring to the use of direct coercion in psychiatric hospitals, the Committee pointed to the case of restraining minor patients who were undergoing court-ordered observation in the hospital in Toszek. It was pointed out that the only form of coercion should be the use of physical power to administer a treatment that makes the patient less aggressive. The use of restraint belts on minors entails a greater risk of undesired impact on the psychological system of young people. To the report, a replying opinion of the Polish government has been attached8. National and international cooperation An important element of the operation and development of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture is the participation of its representatives in various events on the national level. This way, the NMPT emphasizes its role as a body that protects the rights of persons deprived of their liberty, as well as gains new experience as a result of cooperating with other entities operating in this area. On 22 May at the CHR Office, on the initiative of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a round table meeting entitled State without torture was held. It focused on discussing the international standards of preventive monitoring of places of detention, and on the prevention of torture in Poland. It provided an opportunity 8 The CPT report together with the replying opinion of the Polish government is available at: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt/poland. The report’s translation into Polish: https://bip.ms. gov.pl/Data/Files/_public/ogloszenia/raport_tlumaczenie.pdf Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2018 19

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