Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012 tensified. However, this will only be possible when sufficient financial and human resources appropriate for the tasks are allocated for the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism. With her current personnel and given the number of places of detention (approximately 1800), within the meaning of Article 4 of OPCAT2, the Human Rights Defender is unable to ensure that the minimum international standards on the frequency of visits are met3. This would require 38 full-time jobs, given the population of the country. Each year we try, thanks to the decisions of the Parliament, to systematically increase the number of employees. Currently we have 12 employees on 11 full-time equivalents. The Report has been divided into two parts. The first one discusses the organisational issues regarding the functioning of the Mechanism, activities in cooperation with other entities, both at the national and at the international level, and presents the legal acts on which the representatives of the NMP have given their opinion. The second part of the Report includes a description of the methodology of work applied by the NPM members and conclusions from visits organised in the analysed year, broken down by specific types of places of detention. I encourage you to thoroughly analyse those conclusions. The Report is also available at the website of the Human Rights Defender (www.rpo.gov.pl.) in English which allows international institutions to obtain information about the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland. I hope that the “Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2012” will be an important source of information for you and will contribute to improving the functioning of individual places of detention in Poland. Irena Lipowicz Human Rights Defender Pursuant to Article 4(1) of the OPCAT, it is any place under its jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its consent or acquiescence. 3 According to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, ad hoc preventive visits under the NPM should be carried out once in several months, and comprehensive visits once in five years. According to minimum standards defined by the APT, comprehensive visits to organisational units of the Police, pre-trial detention centres and to places of detention of people particularly vulnerable to threats or aggression, such as women and foreigners, should be carried out at least once a year. 2 6