Implementation of anti-torture guarantees with regard to persons detained by police officers36 The Commissioner for Human Rights who performs the role of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, monitors police detention facilities across the country: rooms for detained persons, operated by organizational units of the police; police emergency facilities for juveniles; and police stations. The aim of the monitoring is to establish a dialogue with the managers of detention facilities in order to increase the protection of persons deprived of their liberty against the risk of torture and ill-treatment. A number of problems, which entail the risk of ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty, have been identified in police detention facilities. The problems are caused among others by the fact that the assessment of the operation the individual establishments and the activities of officers is based on the national regulations, and that the international standards developed over many years and functioning in practice are not taken account of. Unfortunately, an established practice in the replies to the NMPT monitoring visit reports is to refer to the national regulations on the work of prison service officers, which regulations, unfortunately, do not always ensure adequate protection of persons deprived of their liberty against torture. The aim of the NMPT is to determine, based on the developed international standards, the desired directions of changes not only in the legislation, but also in the practices applied. The Commissioner emphasized the key importance of the so-called five anti-torture guarantees, which include: the right of access to a lawyer, the right to have a third person informed about the detention, the right of access to an interpreter and to an initial medical examination by a doctor, the right to information, and the possibility of lodging a complaint. When properly applied, these fundamental guarantees provide comprehensive anti-torture protection for detained persons and for the officers against any false accusations regarding the use of violence against detainees. In order to improve the protection of detained persons against ill treatment, the Commissioner for Human Rights recommends, first of all, that detained persons should have the possibility to directly inform a selected person about their detention and the place at which they are held (and any change of that place). The notification should be made by an officer only when in the given case there is a real and rounded risk that any other notification will disrupt the appropriate course of the proceedings. An officer should also give the detainee the possibility to use a mobile phone in order to search for the telephone number of the person whom they want to notify about the detention and the place where they are held. The information about the effective notification of the selected person should be entered in the documentation on the detainee. If the notification has been made by an officer, the detainee should be informed of this fact and this information should be confirmed by their signature. The Commissioner also recommends that every detained person should be informed about their rights, including: the right to request a medical examination, to notify a close person, to contact a lawyer and to lodge a complaint regarding the officers’ 36 General intervention letter of the CHR to the Police Commander in Chief, of 2 October 2020, no. KMP.570.4.2020. 30