UN special rapporteurs' country visits to Poland

The UN Special Rapporteurs are independent experts holding mandates of special procedures established by the Human Rights Council. One of their main methods of work is conducting country visits, at the invitation of States. The article aims at assessing country visits as the way of monitoring the human rights situation at the national level. It provides an overview of the last visits in Poland, including the visit of the Special Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers in October 2017, focusing on the recommendations issued by Special Rapporteurs in their reports presented to the Human Rights Council and the reaction of Polish Government to the Rapporteur's findings. The Special Rapporteurs' independence and expertise turns country visits reports into a valuable source of information on the situation of human rights that can be used, inter alia, by National Human Rights Institutions and non-governmental organizations. However, the impact of the visit depend mostly on the State's will to implement the Special Rapporteurs' recommendations.