Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2016
the fact that this is the only way to question a person who is unable to answer questions under
the influence of opioid substances. However, when a person is arrested, his or her rights are
guaranteed pursuant to the Criminal Procedure Act and Police Act; conversely, as for
provisional confinement, the person is simply placed into the station, for the purpose of
preventing misdemeanour from being resumed. Even though the person is de facto deprived
of liberty, he or she is not arrested, but simply confined in the police station; and, therefore,
unaware of either reason for the arrest or of rights that he or she may assert. Rights granted to
a person who is being arrested, are vitally important because they represent a guarantee
against abuse and pursuant to CPT standards, they should be applied starting from the very
first moment of a person being deprived of his or her liberty. Therefore, a person should be
arrested immediately upon establishing that grounds exist for he or she to be confined and
Ministry of the Interior should adopt a separate ordinance in order to regulate the question of
accommodating persons under the influence of alcohol in a special room until opioid effects
have worn off.
During our visit, records on use of means of coercion were inspected as well and, in cases
foreseen by the Ordinance, assessment of justifiability of the use of means of coercion was
requested. However, in some cases, assessment was made after expiry of the prescribed time
limit of 24 hours following reception of written report.
Treatment of children
Most police stations that we visited in collaboration with Ombudswoman for Children, dispose
of equipped separate rooms for interviewing children; alternatively, police measures in
connection with this category of perpetrators take place in offices of police officers specializing
in juvenile delinquency. In principle, there are few cases involving children being deprived of
their liberty. Practice is inconsistent when it comes to conduct of police officers towards
children caught while illegally involved in frequenting night entertainment venues; therefore,
in some police stations, children are brought to the police station regardless of time or place
where they are caught, whereas in others, children are taken home.
2.3. Assessment of the state of respect of rights of persons deprived of their
liberty in the police system
Persons deprived of their liberty in police stations and detention units
Police officers are granted specific powers which, if not proportional or well-founded, may lead
to inhuman or degrading treatment. According to APT Manual on Monitoring Police Custody,
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment occur more often in
earlier phases of deprivation of liberty, when the person is arrested or confined provisionally in
the police station, and the risk is even higher during the first few hours, when officers are put
under greater pressure, for the sake of obtaining necessary information.
30
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents