PART I – what is the NMPT? 2018 was the eleventh year of performing, by the Commissioner for Human Rights, of the tasks of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture. Its representatives conducted 82 unannounced visits to various places of detention. Organization of work of the national mechanism for the prevention of torture Each State Party shall maintain, designate or establish, at the latest one year after the entry into force of the present Protocol or of its ratification or accession, one or several independent national preventive mechanisms for the prevention of torture at the domestic level. Mechanisms established by decentralized units may be designated as national preventive mechanisms for the purposes of the present Protocol if they are in conformity with its provisions1. The function of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland is performed by the Commissioner for Human Rights. The Commissioner shall perform the role of a visiting body for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (national preventive mechanism) within the meaning of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 18 December 2002. (Journal of Laws [Dz. U.] of 2007, item 1922. 1 2 Article 17 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 18 December 2002. (Journal of Laws [ Dz. U.] of 2007, item 192). Article 17(4) of the Act of 15 July 1987 on the Commissioner for Human Rights (Journal of Laws [ Dz. U.] of 2018, item 2179), hereinafter: the Act on the CHR. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2018 7