Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012 3. Lack of systemic solutions concerning the situation of pregnant juveniles and juveniles and their children. Pursuant to Article 18 of the Polish Constitution, marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland. Pregnant juveniles are increasingly often found in establishments for juveniles. Their legal situation is not regulated in the Act on juvenile delinquency proceedings, though they require special protection (appropriate diet, basic and specialist health care) and support, both psychological and social. The legal status of juveniles and their children is not properly regulated as well. In view of the fact that juveniles often come from dysfunctional families, their families cannot act as foster families. The juveniles cannot decide about the fate of their children on their own. Therefore, juveniles and their children are often separated which most certainly is not good for any of them. According to the representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism, the situation of pregnant juveniles and juveniles who just gave birth to their children in rehabilitation centres requires systemic changes to ensure that the juveniles and their motherhood and parenthood was indeed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland. It seems that rehabilitation establishments should have homes for mother and child, as do penitentiary units, where juvenile mothers and their children could stay with their children in appropriate conditions and with their status regulated by law. 3.3  Strengths of establishments and good practices The visits have shown that the right of juveniles places in youth care centres and youth sociotherapy centres to education was fully complied with. Within the establishments, there were properly equipped schools and qualified staff. In the afternoon juveniles could participate in remedial programmes and could get assistance from their tutors in their homework. Furthermore, the representatives of the NPM did not see any cases of juveniles staying in conditions infringing their dignity; just the opposite, the juveniles had optimal conditions for study, rest and recreation. The visiting team praised the offer of formative, therapeutic and preventive classes in visited establishments. The juveniles could participate in various extracurricular activities, such as sociotherapeutic workshops, activity clubs, trips, sports and could also work as volunteers. The employees of the NPM found the following ideas and practices observed in youth care centres and youth sociotherapy centres to be particularly worthy of mention. 44