Standards for the Protection of Minors in Health Care, including pharmacy and laboratory from February 15, 2024.

The law enters into force on February 15, 2024, and on that date new obligations will arise for health care providers.

According to Article 3(1) of the Law, the specific safeguards against the risks of sexual crime referred to in Article 1 are "the obligations of employers and other organizers in activities related to the upbringing, education, recreation, treatment, provision of psychological counseling, spiritual development, sports or the pursuit of other interests by minors, or the care of minors, and of employees and other persons admitted to such activities."

In addition, in accordance with the referenced law, the Law of May 13, 2016 on Countering the Threat of Sexual Crime was amended, which also requires entities working with children, including those engaged in activities related to the treatment and care of minors, to have standards for the protection of minors.

At the outset, it should be emphasized that the development of the Standards for the Protection of Minors touches basically every entity providing health services, including individual practices in the medical profession. It can be pointed out, of course, that there are some entities that do not come into contact with children in their practice. This could be assumed, for example, in the case of nursing and treatment facilities whose object is to provide services exclusively to adults. However, if we consider that there are children within the scope of visitors, and they are minor children, then the organization of the provision of services, although not directly aimed at minors, nevertheless includes them.

In this case, in my opinion, doubts about the need to implement the Standards for the Protection of Minors should be resolved in favor of the protected persons.

In particular, that according to Article 22b of the Law of May 13, 2016 on Countering the Threats of Sexual Crime, it is the duty of any organizer of educational, custodial, educational, rehabilitative, religious, artistic, medical, recreational, sports, or activities related to the development of interests by minors to implement standards for the protection of minors. Article 22b of the May 13, 2016 Law on Prevention of Sexual Crime Threats does not mention that medical activities must involve minors.

Therefore, there can be no doubt that any pharmacy or laboratory where biological material is collected should have developed Standards for the Protection of Minors.

By the Law of July 28, 2023, amending the Law - Family and Guardianship Code and certain other laws by amending the text of the Law of May 13, 2016 on Countering the Threat of Sexual Crime, special protection measures are introduced to counteract the threat of sexual crime and special protection measures for minors.

These protection measures include:

1) Obligation to vet those who are hired (checking with the Sex Offender Registry),

2) the obligation of a person who is admitted to work to present information from the Polish and/or foreign criminal record, a statement about the countries of residence in the last 20 years, and a statement of no criminal record when it is not possible to obtain information from a foreign criminal record (there is no such record or the information is not issued),

3) the obligation to adopt Standards for the protection of minors, taking into account:

(A) rules to ensure safe relations between the minor and the personnel of the facility or organizer, in particular, prohibited behavior toward minors;

(B) the principles and procedure for intervening in situations of suspected abuse or having information about abuse of a minor;

(C) procedures and persons responsible for filing notices of suspected crimes against a minor, notifying the guardianship court and, in the case of institutions that have such powers, persons responsible for initiating the "Blue Cards" procedure;

D) rules for reviewing and updating standards;

E) the scope of competence of the person responsible for preparing the personnel of the facility or organizer for the application of the standards, the rules for preparing such personnel for their application, and how to document this activity;

F) the rules and manner of making available to parents or legal or actual guardians and minors standards to familiarize themselves with and apply;

G) persons responsible for receiving reports of incidents threatening the minor and providing support;

H) the method of documenting and rules for storing disclosed or reported incidents or events that threaten the welfare of a minor.

The standards take into account the situation of children with disabilities and children with special educational needs.

The standards also indicate: 1) requirements for safe relationships between minors, in particular, prohibited behaviors; 2) rules for the use of electronic devices with Internet access; 3) procedures for protecting children from harmful content and threats on the Internet and recorded in other forms; 4) rules for establishing a plan for supporting a minor after the disclosure of abuse.

The standards should be formulated in a way that is accessible and understandable to minors and made available both on the website and in a prominent place in the entity. The entity is required to evaluate and update the standards at least once every two years.

In the context of the above, it should be clearly emphasized that a milestone for the protection of children's rights was the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

According to the referenced Convention, 4 basic principles apply to the rights of the child:

I. The principle of equal treatment(Article 2 of the Convention), that is, the prohibition of discrimination in access to health services.

II. The principle of guiding the best interests of the child(Article 3 of the Convention).

III. The principle of the child's right to optimal development, which includes the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral, psychological and social development(Article 6 of the Convention)), i.e., enabling children in hospitals to play, educate, and maintain relationships with relatives and peers.

IV. The principle of listening to and taking into account the views of the child, in accordance with his age and maturity(Article12of the Convention)).