Report of the CHR on the Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland 4) Personal controls of detainees The representatives of the NPM further face situations in which Police officers understand detailed examination – provided for in the Ordinance of the Minister of the Interior of 4 June 2012 on rooms for detained persons or persons brought to sober up, transition rooms, temporary transition premises and Police emergency centres for children, the rules of stay in these premises, rooms and centres, and the method of handling video recordings from these premises, rooms and centres82 (hereinafter referred to as the “Ordinance on PDRs and PECCs”) – as a personal control83. In accordance with § 5(2) of Annex No 1 to the Ordinance on PDRs and PECCs, a person admitted to and held in a PDR is subjected to detailed examination to collect the items referred to in paragraph 1(2) (i.e. dangerous or prohibited items). The person and his/her clothes are examined, if possible, by a Police officer of the same sex so as to ensure that his/ her intimacy is respected. The quoted provision makes it clear that the examination is performed on a dressed detainee, while the Police require detainees to strip naked to control them. The CHR understands the need to ensure the safety of both detained persons and Police officers on duty in PDRs, however, such extensive interference with the right to privacy must not take place without legal regulations which are relevant in the light of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Therefore, the Commissioner for Human Rights pointed in her another general letter of 10 July 2015 to the Minister of the Interior to, among others, the urgent need to regulate the issue of personal controls in a legal act of statutory rank84. In his reply of 12 August 2015, the Undersecretary of State stated that works on draft assumptions of a draft Act on the Police, whose scope is to cover, among others, statutory regulations of the issue of personal controls, are in progress. Progress in developing the regulations in question remains in the interest of the Commissioner for Human Rights. 5) Situation of persons with disabilities The issue of ensuring appropriate conditions in PDRs for persons with disabilities remains unresolved. The issue of adjusting PDRs to the needs of persons with disabilities was one of points of the meeting between the representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism and representatives of the Chief Police Headquarters on 13 October 2014. It was established then to designate premises meeting standards for adjustment to the needs of persons with disabilities to which persons requiring special conditions of stay will be transported. Dz.U. of 2012, item 638, as amended. PDRs in: Brzeg, Śrem, Strzelce Krajeńskie, Łomża, Kłodzko, Jarocin, Kwidzyn, Ostrołęka, Chodzież, Starachowice. https://www.rpo.gov.pl/sites/default/files/Wyst%C4%85pienie%20generalne%20do%20Ministra%20Spraw%20Wewnetrznych%20z%20dnia%2010.07.2015%20r.pdf 82 83 84 40