A/HRC/8/52 page 176 presented before the adoption of the outcome by the plenary to questions or issues that were not sufficiently addressed during the interactive dialogue in the Working Group (see also A/HRC/8/30/Add.1). 1. Views expressed by the State under review on the recommendations and/or conclusions as well as on its voluntary commitments 531. Poland reiterated that the universal periodic review constitutes one of the raisons d’être of the Human Rights Council. Therefore, the Council’s credibility rests largely on the success of the review process. It believes that with the strong commitment of all the stakeholders, the universal periodic review can and will make a difference on the ground by improving the human rights situation in the States under review. 532. In this regard, Poland highly values all comments, questions and recommendations formulated in the course of the review process, which will allow it to better identify key challenges it is facing in the field of human rights. Poland commits itself to improving and further consolidating the national system of the protection and promotion of human rights on the basis of the review outcome. In this context, Poland also stands ready to share with other countries its best practices and experience concerning human rights. It also shared the following commitments and pledges: (a) Poland will ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of death penalty; (b) Measures will be introduced to streamline the implementation of the recommendations of the Human Rights Committee. The mandate of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Matters Concerning the European Court of Human Rights will be extended to integrate therewith decisions of the Human Rights Committee; (c) Poland is also committed to continuing actions to reduce poverty and social exclusion, which will remain a priority in our national social policy. Poland indicated that a new national programme on social security and social integration for 2008-2010, now under preparation, will strengthen assistance to families for the purpose of counteracting poverty and social exclusion of children. These actions are meant to equalize the opportunities of families and children, i.e. to eliminate educational deficits and improve access to services that will enable parents to reconcile their professional activities with the upbringing of children. In addition, the national programme will determine specific goals, including, in particular, lowering the poverty index and the index of poverty risk among children to achieve that the following actions will be undertaken by Poland: • Improvement of family incomes • Development of the child day-care service system • Levelling educational opportunities of and support for school-age children from poor families

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