A/HRC/41/33/Add.2 40. Sexuality education, together with human rights education, is indispensable for addressing the problem of gender-based violence, including harassment and sexual harassment. There is no law regulating harassment based on gender or sexual harassment in education institutions, as the Act on Equal Treatment does not cover this area. While the Working Group received no data regarding the extent of the problem in primary and secondary education, a study from the Commissioner for Human Rights indicates that many female university students have experienced some form of harassment or sexual harassment during their studies, often by university employees. The Working Group learned that shame and stigma attached to sexual harassment and situations of domestic violence often make it difficult for students to come forward. 41. Furthermore, threats to freedom of expression in education institutions and to academic freedom have been reported, which is a trend observed in many countries recently. The Working Group has received information that some teachers who participated in the “black protests” were disciplined. Moreover, the Working Group learned that funding for gender studies research, for which Poland has been known in the region, is becoming more restrictive, while gender studies scholars report facing a more hostile environment. VI. Health 42. The Constitution provides for universal health care for the citizens of Poland, while the 2004 Act Concerning the Public Funding of Health Care extends the coverage to those granted refugee status or subsidiary protection in Poland. According to the same Act, care for pregnant women and girls during childbirth and confinement is financed through public funds, as are specialist obstetric-gynaecological health-care services for women and gynaecological services for girls. 43. The Working Group acknowledges that the Government has in recent years adopted several measures aimed at protecting women’s health needs, particularly those related to maternal health care, including the recent adoption of standards on perinatal health care, the issuance of recommendations for reducing the number of caesarean sections, and the introduction of a programme to coordinate care for pregnant women. In addition, the Government has developed the Strategy for Persons with Disabilities 2018–2030, which should, inter alia, improve access for women with disabilities to medical facilities, and has started implementation of the Accessibility Plus for Health programme. The 2016 Act on Support for Pregnant Women and Families (“For Life”) provides for support for women with a prenatal diagnosis of severe defects of the foetus in relation to pregnancy, prenatal diagnostics and therapy as well as palliative and hospice care. 44. However, certain challenges remain in securing women’s right to health, particularly for women facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. The Working Group learned that in certain places rural women still faced obstacles in their access to health services and health-care providers such as gynaecologists, for example due to geographical distance, and that women with disabilities, Roma women, sex workers and lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women have limited access to health services that are tailored to their needs. Access to health services is particularly difficult for migrants in irregular situations, who constitute the majority of sex workers, according to interlocutors. 45. Moreover, notwithstanding the effort to improve the quality of care and women’s experience during childbirth, the Working Group learned of cases of negligence, mistreatment and various types of abuse experienced by pregnant women in health facilities. In addition, infertility treatment in the form of in vitro fertilization is no longer being funded by the State. The Working Group was informed of challenges to meeting the health needs of women and children with disabilities and ensuring their full integration into society. In addition, women’s right to reproductive self-determination (i.e., the right to decide whether or not to have children and to determine the number, timing and spacing of children, as well as to have the information and means to do so) is seriously restricted. 10

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