Committee on the Rights of the Child
Seventieth session
14 September–2 October 2015
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
Considerati on of reports of States parties
List of issues in relation to the third and fourth periodic reports of Poland
The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 June 2015.
The Committee may take up any aspects of children’s rights set out in the Optional Protocol during the dialogue with the State party.
Part I
In this section, the State party is requested to submit its responses to the following questions.
Please provide information about the results of the evaluation of the National Action Plan for Children 2004–2012 “Poland for Children”. Please also report on any measures taken for the adoption of a new national strategy for children.
Please provide information about the functioning of the interministerial working group for the rights of the child, referred to in paragraph 51 of the State party’s report (CRC/C/POL/3-4), including its mandate and the human, financial and technical resources allocated to it.
Please provide information on the coordination mechanisms between the national and local levels for the implementation of policies relating to children’s rights. Please provide information about measures adopted by local authorities, including poviat (county) authorities, to comply with the Convention and on assessments of local programmes implemented during the reporting period.
Please provide information on complaints brought to the attention of the Ombudsman for Children, including the type of complaints, and on mechanisms to ensure that children participate in activities conducted by the Ombudsman.
Please provide information on guidelines and protocols for applying the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code relating to the possibility of a child being heard in court proceedings on condition that his or her psychological development, health condition and maturity allow for this.
Please elaborate on the information regarding the use of child-friendly interview rooms in the context of judicial proceedings. Please indicate whether there are mechanisms to enforce the implementation of such a practice and indicate the current number of child-friendly interview rooms available throughout the country at all court levels. Please clarify the kind of training given to judges and other court staff on interviewing children.
Please provide updated information about the database on cases of ethnic discrimination and the results of the National Programme for Counteracting Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (2004–2007) and report on strategies and programmes to combat discrimination against children belonging to minority groups.
Please provide information on the investigations carried out regarding torture and ill-treatment of children in various types of detention centres, such as police child-detention centres, juvenile-detention centres, juvenile shelters and young offender’s institutions.
Please provide updated information about measures taken to prevent and combat all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment in all settings, and about access to remedies, as well as means to ensure that child victims of violence can have access to local support centres and other structures in the State party. Please provide updated information about current awareness-raising activities and campaigns aimed at preventing all forms of violence against children.
Please clarify the nature and main lines of action of the “Blue Card” procedure referred to in paragraph 290 of the State party’s report.
Please provide further information about the coverage of the help lines for children at the municipal and poviat levels.
Please provide information about measures taken to monitor and protect the rights of children placed in care facilities and in foster families. Please also indicate the measures that the State has taken to prevent the separation of children from their families, in particular for social and economic reasons, and to prevent the abandonment of newborn babies. Please also inform the Committee about whether the State party has adopted or envisages adopting a strategy to deinstitutionalize children placed in educational and care facilities and to promote family-based and community-based care
Please provide information about measures taken by the State party to ensure the protection of children with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities; in particular, measures to prevent forced hospitalization, and mechanisms to appeal decisions about forced health treatments. Please also provide information about measures taken to ensure the full inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream education.
Please indicate whether the State party has taken measures to ensure that education on sexual and reproductive health and rights is adequately provided to all children. With reference to the information provided in paragraph 576 of the State party’s report about family life education, please indicate the percentage of students who do not attend family life education classes on the basis of written communications submitted by their parents and/or legal guardians.
Please provide information on measures taken to ensure effective access to safe abortion services for adolescent girls in the cases allowed by the 1993 Law on Family Planning, Protection of the Human Foetus and Conditions for Legal Abortion,and on measures to provide adequate post-abortion care.
Please provide information about measures taken to ensure adequate living conditions for children, including public policies, strategies and programmes to fight against poverty, and measures to expand the coverage of the system of family benefits and ensure that large families, single parent families and children with disabilities at risk of poverty have access to benefits.
Please provide information, including data disaggregated by sex and age, about asylum-seeking children and unaccompanied children who are appointed a legal guardian in current procedures aimed at the recognition of refugee status.
Please provide information about measures taken to ensure access to regular education for Roma children. Please report on the existence of kindergartens for Roma children and measures taken to raise awareness in society about Roma culture.
Please provide updated information about the National Programme for Combating and Preventing Trafficking in Persons referred to in paragraphs 833, 838 and 872 of the State party’s report. Please provide updated information about prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators of trafficking of children and child pornography. Please also inform the Committee about measures to protect child victims of trafficking and forced prostitution, including children from other countries, and the type of services available for them. Please provide further details on the extent to which children benefit from the National Consulting and Intervention Centre for the Victims of Trafficking in Persons (KCIK).
With reference to paragraph 184 of the State party report on processes to amend the Act on Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings, please provide updated information on the status of the legislation relating to juvenile justice and elaborate on the current procedures for dealing with cases of children in conflict with the law. Please elaborate on the information in paragraph 187 regarding the possibility of placing children over 13 years of age in correction centres. Please provide information on safeguards to ensure compliance with due process of law in the situations described in paragraphs 174 and 176 of the State party report.
Part II
In this section, the Committee invites the State party to briefly (three pages maximum) update the information presented in its report with regard to:
(a)New bills and laws, and their respective regulations;
(b)New institutions and their mandates, and institutional reforms;
(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans, and their scope and financing;
(d) Budget allocated for developing measures for the realization of the rights of the child by different ministries and by local authorities;
(e)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.
Part III
Data, statistics and other information, if available
1.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on budget lines for children and social sectors, indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget, gross national product and geographical allocation.
2.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years on:
(a)Children under 5 years of age;
(b)Children belonging to ethnic, religious and language minorities;
(c)Roma children in the education system;
(d)Children living in poverty and extreme poverty;
(e)Shelters and special support centres for child victims of domestic violence.
3.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, for the past three years, on the number of children:
(a)Separated from their parents;
(b)Placed in institutions;
(c)Under 7 years of age placed in education and care facilities;
(d)Placed with foster families;
(e)Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoption.
4.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities:
(a)Living with their families;
(b)Living in institutions;
(c)Attending regular primary schools;
(d)Attending regular secondary schools;
(e)Attending special schools;
(f)Out of school;
(g)Abandoned by their families.
5.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report which may have been superseded by more recent data collected, or which may have been affected by new developments.
6.In addition, the State party may list issues affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.