CAT/OP/POL/ROSP/1 11. The Subcommittee draws the attention of Poland and the national preventive mechanism to the Special Fund established under article 26 of the Optional Protocol. Only recommendations contained in those Subcommittee visit reports that have been made public can form the basis of applications to the Fund, in accordance with its published criteria. 12. The Subcommittee wishes to express its gratitude to the authorities and to the liaison officer for their help and assistance relating to the planning and undertaking of the visit. While the Subcommittee regrets that it was not provided with complete information on places of deprivation of liberty from the outset, it appreciates that the issue was rapidly resolved with the intervention of the government focal point. II. Implementation of the Optional Protocol: the national preventive mechanism 13. Poland ratified the Optional Protocol on 14 September 2005, and it designated its national preventive mechanism three years later. On 14 January 2009, the Subcommittee was notified that as at 18 January 2008, the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection (the ombudsperson) was designated as the national preventive mechanism of Poland. 3 14. During the first year of its operation the representatives of the newly designated national preventive mechanism carried out preventive visits in 76 types of detention facilities. They included penal institutions, remand centres, police detention centres, police emergency centres for children, emergency detoxification centres, places for the care or social rehabilitation of young people, juvenile detention centres, juvenile reform schools, military disciplinary detention centres, psychiatric hospitals, guarded centres for foreigners and deportation centres.4 15. According to the information provided to the Subcommittee in 2009, some 30 staff members of the office of the ombudsperson were involved in discharging the mandate of the national preventive mechanism. 5 However, according to the annual report of the national preventive mechanism for 2009, the tasks of the mechanism were performed mainly by six employees of the office of the ombudsperson, delegated to carry out the tasks of the mechanism. Other members of the office (eight persons, including the director) participate in the preventive visits of the mechanism where necessary. 6 Since 2011, the mechanism’s activities have been carried out by a visiting team comprised of eight persons, including the director and a secretary. According to the annual report of the mechanism, in 2016 the composition of the mechanism team decreased by 2.5 full-time positions, and the actual number of employees of the mechanism visiting team was reduced to seven. The ombudsperson has repeatedly emphasized that the small size of the team made it impossible to perform the tasks arising from the Optional Protocol to the full extent.7 16. Expenditures for the activities of the mechanism are covered from the State budget allocation received by the ombudsperson. The designation of the office of the ombudsperson as the national preventive mechanism of Poland was not followed by the allocation of the appropriate additional resources necessary to allow the office to undertake this additional role. Since its first year of operation in Poland, the mechanism has experienced financial problems, which have prevented it from implementing the assigned tasks properly. Despite entrusting the office of the ombudsperson with the tasks of the mechanism, the Government 3 4 5 6 7 4 Notification letter available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/OPCAT/NPM/Poland.pdf. Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection, “Report of the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection on the activities of the national preventive mechanism in Poland in 2008”, Bulletin of the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection 2009, No. 5 (Warsaw, 2009), pp. 18–19. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/OPCAT/NPM/Poland_2008FirstAnnualReport.pdf. Notification letter available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/OPCAT/NPM/Poland.pdf. Human Rights Defender, “Report of the human rights defender on the activities of the national preventive mechanism in Poland in 2009”, Bulletin of the Human Rights Defender 2010, No. 4 (Warsaw, 2010), p. 105. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/OPCAT/NPM/NPM_Poland_AnnualReport2009.pdf. Commissioner for Human Rights, “Report of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights on the Activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in 2016”, Bulletin of the Commissioner for Human Rights 2017, No. 4 (Warsaw, 2017), p. 12. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/OPCAT/NPM/Poland2016.pdf.