A/HRC/43/50/Add.3 4. The above statement is not true. Extensive assumptions of the overarching cultural policy at the Ministry level can be found in the document “Information of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage concerning the strategy and planned changes in the area of culture and national heritage”, prepared in 2016. It contains a precisely described diagnosis of the state of the country’s cultural policy, a presentation of the mission of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, a presentation of the objectives of the cultural policy of the state and a comprehensive description of the activities of the Ministry aimed at achieving the objectives of this policy. This document was sent to the Special Rapporteur on 23 January 2019 (together with answers to numerous additional questions sent to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage). 5. The cultural policy of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and its effects are presented at the Council of Ministers. Cultural issues are also an extremely important element of the Strategy for Responsible Development - a key document of the Polish state in the area of medium and long-term economic policy. 6. It is also worth noting that the significance of cultural policy in the actions of the government is evidenced by figures: between 2015 and 2019, spending on culture from the state budget increased by 34%. Taking into account the budgetary plans for 2020, this will be an increase of 40%. Ad part B System of cultural governance, paragraph 20 7. The statement on the attribution of points in the evaluation of project has to be rejected in its entirety. Points for proposals submitted in the Minister's Programmes are awarded on the basis of clear and transparent regulations, the content and provisions of which do not differ either from the solutions applied by previous governments in Poland or from the solutions commonly applied in other European countries. 8. The assessment of proposals in the Minister's Programmes consists of three elements: content-related assessment, evaluation of the project's compliance with the strategic objectives of a given programme and organisational assessment. This model has been adopted since the 2013 edition and has not changed until today. (A) Content-related assessment Proposals submitted to a given programme, after a formal assessment of their correctness carried out by individual Managing Authorities, are directed to the content-related assessment of an expert commission appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Expert commissions are appointed annually by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, on the basis of recommendations created by individual Managing Authorities. When recommending individual experts for the composition of the commissions, the Managing Authorities take into account the thematic scope of the programme concerned, the experts' experience in this field and their competence. 9. The Commission evaluates the proposals submitted to the Minister's Programmes on the basis of the criteria set out in the regulations of a given programme. For example in the Music Programme in the 2018 call for proposals the following assessment criteria were indicated: Criteria for assessing the substantive value 1. A. Presentation of musical creation in the rich context of Polish and world culture through confrontation of tradition and modernity, as well as interdisciplinary activities and presentation of a wide range of musical genres and performance techniques and practices. B Presentation of innovative achievements of contemporary music, including premieres and first performances. C. Creative interpretation of the centuries-old heritage of musical culture, through the preservation and popularization of the most outstanding musical achievements, as well as the discovery and presentation of forgotten and rarely performed works. D. The adequacy of the activities carried out within the framework of the task and the costs allocated to their implementation in relation to the expected artistic effects. 3