84 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 CIA prisons in the country, expressing concern about allegations that Poland participated in running terrorist suspect prisons in the country. Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczyński said that the government regarded the allegations as a "closed issue" when questioned about the CAT´s request for more information. The CAT noted that while recognizing the government's refutation of Polish participation in the programme of secret detentions, it needed more information from the confidential inquiry conducted by the Polish parliament. On 8 June, the Rapporteur on secret detentions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Senator Dick Marty, issued a second report revealing new evidence that US ''high-value detainees'' were held in secret CIA prisons in Poland and Romania during the period 2002-2005 and alleged a secret agreement among members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in October 2001 which provided the basic framework for this and other illegal CIA activities in Europe. In an explanatory memorandum made public the same day, Dick Marty said he had cross-referenced the credible testimonies of over 30 members of intelligence services in the US and Europe with analysis of ''data strings'' from the international flight planning system. AI applauded the report and the extraordinary investigative work undertaken by Dick Marty’s office in getting to the wellconcealed truth about the US-led secret detention programme (see AI Index: IOR 30/013/2007). The report strengthened AI's finding that three former secret detainees, whose cases were extensively documented over a year ago, had been held in an Eastern European "black site". Later that month as PACE was preparing to debate Senator Marty’s report, AI called on Poland and Romania to conduct independent, impartial and thorough investigations into new information concerning CIA flights and secret detention centres on their territories (see AI Index: EUR 37/003/2007). AI also called on PACE to adopt the draft Resolution and Amnesty International Recommendation on rendition and secret detention accompanying Senator Dick Marty’s report. PACE subsequently endorsed Senator Marty’s report on 27 June, with 124 votes in favour, 37 against and eight abstentions, backing its conclusions that “it is now established with a high degree of probability that secret detention centres operated by the CIA, forming part of the High Value Detainee (HVD) program, existed for some years in Poland and Romania..” When adopting the Recommendation, the PACE called on the need for democratic oversight of military intelligence services and foreign intelligence services operating on their territory; urged the restrictions on the investigations on the grounds of “national security” to be lifted; and urged compensation to the victims of the unlawful transfers and detention. Both Poland and Romania denied their involvement with secret detention centres and the Romanian delegation announced its withdrawal from the PACE. Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation During the period under review AI continued to express its concerns to a number of Polish officials about the openly homophobic language used by highly placed politicians, as well as in relation to proposed measures against the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ that would restrict students’ access to information and violate their freedom of expression. Openly homophobic language by highly placed politicians contributed to the persistence of discriminatory attitudes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. On 2 March, for example, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Roman Giertych reportedly stated during a meeting of European Ministers of Education, “We ... cannot promote as normal same-sex partnerships when teaching youth, as those partnerships objectively constitute deviation from the natural law.” In February, President Lech Kaczyński reportedly said on 20 February during his visit to Ireland that AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007