The case of torture at a police unit confirmed by a court Rights also noted that such a recommendation has been made to the Polish government by the UN Committee against Torture following each analysis of periodic reports submitted by Poland under Article 19(1) of CAT. Similarly, Polish NGOs have long been of the opinion that it is necessary to include torture in the criminal codification as an offence, whose scope encompasses the conduct specified in Article 1 of CAT. The proposal to revise the Polish Criminal Code in this respect has already been made by the Commissioner for Human Rights, who, in 2000, sent a letter regarding this matter to the Minister of Justice – Prosecutor General in the office at that time165. In the response dated 15 December 2015, the Under-secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice informed that according to him, the current penal regulations on torture are sufficient in order to meet the international commitments of Poland. The definition of torture included in CAT is fully reflected in the Polish law. Due to its length and complex nature, the relevant provisions are placed in different sections of the Penal Code, depending on the type of infringed interests. Any introduction of a definition of torture from the Convention into the Penal Code would be of no significance from the viewpoint of protecting human rights in Poland, it would only be repeating the definitions already in place in the Polish law. Moreover, adopting the definition of torture in full as only one offence would violate the adopted principles of organization of the Polish penal law, according to which the offences are divided according to the types of violations of the legally protected interests of an individual. As the Commissioner for Human Rights does not agree with such argumentation, the Commissioner wrote again to the Minister of Justice in a letter of 24 March 2016 and indicated that had the definition of torture been fully reflected in the Penal Code, Poland would not have to explain itself for years before the international institutions in this respect, and the postulate of regulating the offence of torture in the Penal Code filed by them would not be repeated so many times166. The Commissioner indicates that the point is to clearly differentiate the acts of torture committed by a public official or any person acting on behalf of the state and violence in the general sense of this word. According to the Commissioner, penal law should be construed in an as precise and clear manner as possible, due to its repressive nature. Fragmentation of the provisions in the Penal Code makes it difficult or even impossible to qualify individual actions as torture under CAT. Moreover, the Penal Code does not provide for sanctions that are sufficiently severe compared to the nature of the committed crime. The current regulations might even lead to avoiding liability by the person that used torture. The representatives of NPM that visited different detention centres did not determine that the detained persons were subjected to torture. However, one cannot assume based on that fact that no such events take place in Poland. The above is proven in the analysis of a 165 II.071.4.2015, http://www.sprawy-generalne.brpo.gov.pl/szczegoly.php?pismo=558933 IX.071.1.2015, http://www.sprawy-generalne.brpo.gov.pl/szczegoly.php?pismo=693327 166 67