In the recommendations on Poland the Committee stated that it welcomes the dialogue the Committee held with the high-level Polish delegation on 12-13 October 2010 as well as the detailed written replies submitted in response to the Committee’s list of issues and the additional information and clarifications provided during the consideration of the report. In total, the Committee adopted the following 21 recommendations:

1. The Committee is concerned that the definition of a terrorist crime is broad and does not adequately define the nature and consequences of the acts. The State party should ensure that the Penal Code not only defines terrorist crimes in terms of their purpose, but also narrowly defines the nature of those acts.

2. The State party should further amend the Law on equal treatment so that discrimination based on sexual orientation, disability, religion or age in the fields of education, health care, social protection and housing is adequately covered.

3. The State party should step up efforts to promote tolerance and combat prejudice, particularly within the National Programme against Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which was extended until 2013. It should pay particular attention to the monitoring of the impact of the previous and current National Programmes. The State party is furthermore requested to include in its next periodic report detailed information on the number of investigations carried out into incidences and manifestations of anti-Semitism, as well as prosecutions instigated and sentences passed in each case.

4. The Committee remains concerned about the continued social marginalization and discrimination faced by members of the Roma minority. The State party should continue to take all necessary measures to ensure the practical enjoyment by the Roma of their rights under the Covenant by implementing and reinforcing effective measures to prevent and address discrimination and the serious social and economic situation of the Roma.

5. The State party should ensure that all allegations of attacks and threats against individuals targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity are thoroughly investigated. It should also: legally prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend the Penal Code to define hate speech and hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity among the categories of punishable offenses; and intensify awareness-raising activities aimed at the police force and wider public.

6. The State party should intensify its efforts to achieve equitable representation of women in Parliament and at the highest levels of the Government, judiciary, public service, academia, police force and prison service, within specific and urgent time frames. It should also ensure that women enjoy equal pay for work of equal value, especially in senior management positions. Finally, the State party should reinstitute the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equality of Men and Women as an independent national equality body.

7. The State party should amend the law on domestic violence to empower police officers to issue immediate restraining orders at the scene. It should incorporate domestic violence issues into the standard training offered to law enforcement and judicial officials. It should ensure that victims of domestic violence have access to assistance, including legal and psychological counselling, medical help and shelter.

8. The State party is invited to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is aimed at the abolition of the death penalty.

9. The State party should urgently review the effects of the restrictive antiabortion law on women. It should conduct research into and provide statistics on the use of illegal abortion. It should introduce regulations to prohibit the improper use and performance of the “conscience clause” by the medical profession. The State party should also drastically reduce medical commissions’ response deadline in cases related to abortions. Finally, the State party should strengthen measures aimed at the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, by inter alia making a comprehensive range of contraceptives widely available at an affordable price and including them on the list of subsidized medicines.

10. The State party should intensify its efforts to eradicate cases of police misconduct, through inter alia training, as well as the thorough and impartial investigation and prosecution of those responsible. It should also establish a competent, independent and impartial body to investigate police misbehavior, providing for the possibility of complainants (or their agents) to submit a complaint directly and confidentially to this body. 

11. The State party should include in its Criminal Code a provision protecting victims of trafficking from prosecution, detention or punishment for activities they were involved in as a direct consequence of their situation as trafficked persons. The State party should furthermore take measures, including legislative, to ensure that a trafficked victim’s protection is not made conditional upon the person’s cooperation in legal proceedings.

12. The State party should initiate a prompt, thorough, independent and effective inquiry, with full investigative powers to require the attendance of persons and the production of documents, to investigate allegations of the involvement of Polish officials in renditions and secret detentions, and to hold those found guilty accountable, including through the criminal justice system. It should make the findings of the investigation public.

13. The State party should take additional effective legal and other measures to reduce the period of pre-trial detention, in full compliance with arts. 9 (3) and (5) of the Covenant, and ensure that it is only used as an exceptional measure for a limited period of time. The State party should consider a maximum, non-extendible term of pre-trial detention, and intensify the use of alternative measures to pre-trial detention.

14. The State party should take urgent measures to address overcrowding in detention centres and prisons, including through increased resort to alternative forms of punishment, such as electronic monitoring and parole, as well as reduce use of pretrial detention.

15. The State party should take measures to ensure that the detention of foreigners in transit zones is not excessively protracted and that, if the detention were to be extended, the decision is adopted by a court. The State party should ensure that the regime, services and material conditions in all deportation detention centres are in conformity with minimum international standards. Finally, the State party should ensure that detained foreigners have easy access to information on their rights, in a language they can understand, even if this requires the provision of a qualified interpreter.

16. The State party should urgently improve the functioning of the judicial system, including through increasing the number of qualified and professionally trained judicial personnel, as well as training judges and court staff in efficient case management techniques. It should also ensure that adequate compensation is awarded in cases related to lengthy proceedings.

17. The State party should ensure that persons deprived of their liberty: (1) have immediate access to legal counsel from the beginning of their detention; (2) are able to meet with their lawyers in private, including prior to a court hearing; and (3) can correspond with their lawyer confidentially in all instances, without external monitoring, and in an expeditious manner.

18. The State party should amend the Lustration Law Act of 2006 to ensure that persons against whom lustration proceedings have been initiated have full and unhindered access to all case files and classified archive documentation.

19. The State party should expedite the process of amending the Penal Code to abolish imprisonment for press offences.

20. The State party should introduce legislative amendments to the Assemblies Act in order to ensure that appeals against a ban to hold a peaceful assembly are not unnecessarily protracted and are dealt with before the planned date.

21. The State party should introduce new legislation governing in detail the living conditions to be secured in police custody centres for children and the rules governing children’s entry and stay in such facilities. It should also ensure that children who have not committed a punishable act are not placed in such custody centres.