CAT/OP/POL/CNPMRO/1 33. As part of the campaign, representatives of the Mechanism conduct training sessions for university students who in the future, in their professional work, may come in contact with persons deprived of liberty (for example, for students taking part in internships in the CHR Office). 34. Also, the police attended training sessions on preventing torture. The police constitutes, undoubtedly, the service which, in view of existing court judgments regarding the use of torture against detained persons, displays most shortcomings in this area.2 35. As part of the campaign, an international debate was also organized on the issue of secondary victimization of victims of torture placed in closed centres for migrants. Among the invited guests were: Ms Ala Elczewska, a specialist in trauma treatment, who works for a Danish institute named Dignity and supports traumatized persons, as well as representatives of the national preventive mechanisms from the Czech Republic and Greece and of the Polish border guard. 36. Apart from the long-term strategy, the Mechanism’s activities performed on annual basis consist in the implementation of two types of actions: preventive visits and educational activities. In addition, every year a decision is made by the Mechanism on the type of entities to which most attention will be paid during the visits (thus called thematic visits). This is necessary so as to collect information for thematic analyses of individual types of places of detention, or groups of people deprived of liberty. As an example, the thematic visits to psychiatric hospitals and other psychiatric establishments for minors resulted in the publication of a paper entitled Psychiatric care for minors. The current situation in Poland in the field of such care for minors is alarming. Another example of the thematic publication of the Mechanism is Monitoring of the situation of prisoners with physical or sensory disabilities. A publication on the situation of migrants placed in closed centres in Poland is also being prepared. Comments on the recommendation(s) contained in paragraph 34 37. Over the past two years, a number of actions have been taken to increase the visibility of the Mechanism in society. The NMPT has its own logo and a website that describes all the activities it undertakes. 38. The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, together with partners: the National Bar Council, the National Chamber of Legal Advisers, the Council of Europe, the OSCE ODIHR, the Association for the Prevention of Torture and Kantar Millward Brown conduct a social campaign entitled State without torture. 39. The NMPT’s experience gained during more than 1,000 visits to places where people are deprived of liberty shows that the problem of torture or other forms of cruel and degrading treatment is still existing in Poland (2018 was the year of the 10th anniversary of the operation of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland). 40. In the survey Torture: Poles’ opinions, that was conducted at the turn of September and October 2018 by Kantar Millward Brown on the initiative of the Commissioner for Human Rights, as many as 71% of the respondents indicated that after 1989 in Poland there have been cases of torture. At the same time, citizens emphasize that the problem of the use of torture in public-sector facilities should be given more public space, as concluded by as many as 86% of the respondents. It is also of great concern that as many as 41% of the respondents believe that the use of torture may be justified in specific cases. 2 In 2008-2015, 33 police officers were penalized for offenses under Article 246 of the Penal Code. In 2016, six such judgments became final, and 9 police officers were sentenced. According to the data provided by the National Criminal Records, in 2017 three police officers were sentenced under that Article. In 2018, a final judgment was issued with regard to 3 police officers penalized for the offence under Article 247 of the Penal Code. In 2018, another judgment, not yet final, was also issued with regard to 4 police officers violating Article 246 of the Penal Code. Moreover, in 2018, a prosecutor’s office initiated proceedings regarding mistreatment of a person detained by 3 police officers (Article 247 of the Penal Code). The case was disclosed by employees of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture during a routine visit to one of the police stations. Proceedings are also pending with regard to the death of Igor Stachowiak; four police officers have charges against them (Article 247 of the Penal Code). 9