Rights of detained persons. Basic legal and practical problems – HFHR’s perspective

A delegation of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visited Poland from 11 to 22 May.

According to a release published on the Committee’s website, among the facilities visited by the delegation were police headquarters in Białystok, Bytom, Gliwice, Opole and Warsaw, Guarded Centres for Foreigners in Lesznowola and Białystok as well as several prisons, a young offender institution in Białystok and the National Centre for the Prevention of Dissocial Behaviours in Gostynin.

A CPT delegation last visited Poland in 2013. Awaiting a report from the monitoring and recommendations for national authorities, the HFHR decided to present its comments on the observance of rights of persons staying in detention facilities and implementation of previous CPT recommendations.

The HFHR’s report contains information about police conduct and rights of detained persons, the monitoring of detention facilities and the situation in prisons, pre-trial detention centres, psychiatric facilities and immigration centres.

CPT operates an extrajudicial mechanism of protecting detained persons against torture and other forms of maltreatment. In this way, the Committee’s visits supplement the operations of the European Court of Human Rights.

The HFHR’s report is available here.