Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012 6. Thematic reports In 2012, the representatives of the NPM drew up two thematic reports which were published on the website of the Human Rights Defender, namely, The Report of the Human Rights Defender on visits to the Police emergency centres for children carried out by the National Preventive Mechanism18 and Visual monitoring in places of detention. Report by the National Preventive Mechanism19. The first Report highlighted the major problems encountered in the Police emergency centres for children which require improvement/change, such as: 1. lengthy stay of juveniles in the Police emergency centres for children after the court issues a decision on using the appropriate measure20; 2. the failure to ensure that all newly admitted juveniles undergo immediate medical examination and that they are regularly visited by a doctor or a nurse;21 3. the lack of detailed regulations on contacts (including by phone) of juveniles with their families and external world; 4. elimination of inappropriate practices of the officers on duty in the emergency centres, such as operational and investigatory activities, infringement of the rule that personal searches are performed by a person of the same sex or use of prohibited coercive measures (straitjackets) or handcuffs without sufficient grounds for using them; 5. elimination of inappropriate (i.e. in breach of the Ordinance22) disciplinary measures towards juveniles consisting in filing reports on inappropriate behaviour of juveniles to family courts, schools, etc., ban on watching television, partial or total ban on visits of parents or guardians, making relevant entries in the documentation concerning juveniles. The representatives of http://www.rpo.gov.pl/pl/content/raport-z-wizytacji-w-policyjnych-izbach-dzieckaprzeprowadzonych-przez-krajowy-mechanizm 19 http://www.rpo.gov.pl/pl/content/monitoring-wizyjny-w-miejscach-pozbawienia-wolno%C5%9B ci-raport-krajowego-mechanizmu-prewencji 20 The proposed relevant legislative amendments are included in the draft Act amending the Act on juvenile delinquency proceedings and the Act – Law on the organisation of common courts of 7 January 2013. 21 Cf. [§ 44 CPT (2005)3]. Apart from a change in order to carry out medical examinations of all juveniles admitted to the Police emergency centres for children, another change required is an adjustment to constitutional standards, since the medical examination of some persons, as an interference into privacy of an individual, should be regulated in an act and not as it is now in an ordinance. 22 Pursuant to § 6 of the Ordinance of the Minister of the Interior and Administration of 21 January 2002 on detailed rules governing the stay of juveniles in Police emergency centres for children (Dz. U. No 10, item 104, as amended), the disciplining measures in the emergency centre are oral praise or reprimand. 18 16