A/HRC/36/14 Sejm (lower house of parliament) and two by the President from among candidates proposed by the opposition. Since initiating its activities, the Council had held open and transparent competitions to select presidents of polish television and radio. 18. The United States raised a question on the criminalization of the use of the phrase “Polish death camps” and the passing of a law for the restitution of private property to individuals. On the criminalization of the phrase, the text of the proposed law included that the illicit act should not be considered a crime if committed within the expression of artistic or scientific activity. Freedom of research and artistic activity was thus explicitly protected under the proposed law. Moreover, criminalization would apply only to claims that were strictly “contrary to historical facts”. 19. Similar provisions already existed under the same law, providing for the criminalization of the denial of Nazi German crimes. In that case, freedom of expression was already constricted to a certain extent, for the sake of combating Holocaust denial. That would be extended to encompass ascribing responsibility for the Nazi German crimes to the Polish nation or State. However, the amendments were still proposals and not yet law, and as such might be subject to change. 20. Despite no existing specific law on the subject, the restitution of private property had been under way in Poland for over two decades. The existing legal system in Poland made it clear that any legal or natural person or their heir was entitled to recover pre-war property that had been seized unlawfully by either the Nazi German or the Soviet occupation authorities or by the post-war communist regime. Claimants might proceed through court and administrative procedures. The Polish legal system contained ample provisions that enabled owners or their heirs to claim such property. The relevant legal acts included the Civil Code, the Code of Administrative Procedure and the Law on the Management of Property. 21. According to court or administrative procedures, damages could be paid out of the reprivatization fund administered by the Ministry of Development. From the date it was set up in 2001 until October 2016, the Fund had paid out damages totalling 2.3 billion zlotys to 4,792 natural and 77 legal persons. That sum included damages paid to persons claiming enterprises to which property had not been returned in kind. 22. The delegation of Poland looked forward to a fruitful dialogue with all and would listen to their comments and recommendations and try to respond to all of them. B. Interactive dialogue and responses by the State under review 23. During the interactive dialogue, 72 delegations made statements. Recommendations made during the dialogue are to be found in section II of the present report. 24. Serbia encouraged Poland to continue to advance the human rights infrastructure and devote particular attention to strengthening independent and oversight institutions. It noted that fighting all forms of slavery remained a challenge. 25. Sierra Leone commended Poland for updating its national legislation on the rights of migrants and human trafficking and encouraged it to address the rights of Roma peoples and asylum seekers. 26. Latvia noted the concerns regarding the lack of adequate protection mechanisms for victims of domestic violence. It asked about measures envisaged to ensure independent broadcasting of the public television and radio services. 27. South Africa welcomed legislation towards a total ban on corporal punishment and the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on communications procedure. 28. Spain commended the ratification of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention). It encouraged Poland to continue to ratify international human rights treaties. 4