The United Nations has issued a Press Release concerning the review of Poland's fifth periodic report under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by the Human Rights Committee (HRC). Poland is one of 153 States parties to the ICCPR. Therefore, the country is required to submit reports on its attempts to implement the provisions of the treaty. According to Sylweriusz Krolak, Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice of Poland, who introduced the document, the report focuses on gender mainstreaming, eliminating the abuse of junior soldiers in the army, providing efficient penitentiary supervision and independent monitoring of rights of persons deprived of liberty.
The report also addresses concerns of the Committee such as the frequency of pre-trail detention, access to legal assistance, the scope of jurisdiction of military courts, and wiretapping of new religious movements.
More generally the report describes the Polish Government's response to human rights and conditions of detention, terrorism, gender equality, trafficking in human beings, refugees and asylum seekers, due process, and racial and other forms of discrimination.
Compiled from: "Human Rights Committee Considers Report of Poland," Press Release, United Nations, 28 October 2004.