A/HRC/43/50/Add.1 Annex I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights visited Poland from 24 September to 5 October 2018. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Poland for the invitation to visit the country and for allowing her to travel unhindered to many places and sites with no obstacle save limitations of time. 2. During her visit, the Special Rapporteur met with numerous officials from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Digital Affairs, as well as the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, in particular the Plenipotentiary for Civil Society and Equal Treatment. At the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, she had the opportunity to meet with officials from several departments, including the departments for international relations, State patronage, national cultural institutions, cultural heritage, monuments preservation, art and culture education, and intellectual property and the media, as well as the National Heritage Board. At the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, she met with representatives of the department for religion and national and ethnic minorities. She also met with representatives of a variety of government bodies, including the Institute of National Remembrance, the National Freedom Institute, the National Broadcasting Council and the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as with representatives of mixed bodies like the National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). At the municipal level, the Special Rapporteur held discussions with the deputy mayors of Gdańsk and Kraków, as well as relevant municipal bodies and cultural departments. In addition, she met with representatives of regional bodies. 3. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to listen to a wide range of Polish voices, including those of academics, actors, artists, civil society organizations and activists from different sectors, cultural professionals, representatives of cultural centres, current and former directors of national cultural institutions, feminists and women human rights defenders, festival directors, journalists, lawyers, musicologists, psychologists, teachers and trade unionists, as well as representatives of Kashubian, Jewish, Muslim and Ukrainian groups and activists promoting and defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, of persons with disabilities and of refugees and migrants. She tried to meet representatives of the Polish Catholic Church, specifically the Council of Bishops, and of the German and Roma minorities, but this was not possible for logistical reasons. 4. The Special Rapporteur visited numerous cultural institutions, including cinemas, museums, theatres and the Polish National Opera. She attended cultural performances, viewed exhibitions and visited churches and synagogues. She also went to cultural heritage sites and important memorial sites such as the birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin and the adjacent Żelazowa Wola memorial park and the UNESCO World Heritage site at the Auschwitz-Birkenau former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. 5. The present report is based on information gathered during and after the visit. Considering the long period of time that has passed since the end of the visit, the Special Rapporteur looks forward to learning from the Government about further developments. However, she has received reports that the situation is not improving and that a number of her preliminary observations have not yet been heeded. She is concerned to hear that culture remains a key area in which the ruling party attempts to impose its vision of Poland rather than being a sector in which a variety of voices are equally represented. Some aspects of cultural life seem to be increasingly ideologically circumscribed. Urgent action is needed to reverse course in this regard. 2