STANDARDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF MINORS

STANDARDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF MINORS

at Bogoria House

Senacka Street 6

31-002 Kraków

ABBREVIATED VERSION

Bearing in mind the legal obligation arising from the provisions of the Act of 13 May 2016 on counteracting threats of sexual crimes and protecting minors and the content of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, recognizing the important role of business in ensuring respect for children's rights, Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków adopts the Standards for the Protection of Minors (also "SOM", "Standards"). This document constitutes a set of rules and procedures applied in the event of suspicion that a child staying at Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków, is being harmed and for the prevention of such threats, taking into account the situation of children with disabilities and children with special educational needs.

For the purposes of this document, the meaning of the following terms has been specified:
1. Tourist facilities – hotel facilities and other premises where hotel services are provided as defined in the Act of 29 August 1997 on hotel services and services of tour leaders and tourist guides.
2. Child/minor - for the purposes of these standards, a child is any person who has not reached 18 years of age.​1
3. Child's guardian – the child's legal representative: a parent or legal guardian; foster parent; temporary guardian (i.e., a person authorized to represent a minor Ukrainian citizen who is staying on the territory of the Republic of Poland without adult supervision)​2.
4. Adult stranger - any person over 18 years of age who is not the child's parent or legal guardian.
5. Harm to a child - understood as behaviour that may constitute the commission of a prohibited act to the detriment of a child by any person, including an employee of the entity, or a threat to the child's welfare, including neglect; any intentional or unintentional act/omission by an individual, institution or society as a whole and any result of such action or inaction that violate the rights, freedoms and personal welfare of children and/or disrupt their optimal development.
6. Forms of violence against a child:
●Physical violence against a child is violence that results in the child suffering actual physical harm or being potentially at risk of such harm. This harm occurs as a result of action or omission by a parent or another person responsible for the child, or whom the child trusts, or who has authority over the child. Physical violence against a child may be repetitive or a single incident.
●Psychological violence against a child is a chronic, non-physical, harmful interaction between the child and the caregiver, including both acts and omissions. It includes, among others: emotional unavailability, emotional neglect, a relationship with the child based on hostility, blaming, defamation, rejection, developmentally inappropriate or inconsistent interactions with the child, failure to recognize or acknowledge the child's individuality and psychological boundaries between parent and child.
●Sexual exploitation of a child is involving a child in sexual activity that the child is not able to fully understand and give informed consent to and/or for which the child is not developmentally mature and cannot legally consent in a valid way and/or which is contrary to the legal or customary norms of a given society. Sexual exploitation occurs when such activity takes place between a child and an adult or between a child and another child if those persons are in a caregiving, dependent or authoritative relationship due to age or level of development. Sexual exploitation may also take the form of sexual exploitation for gain, i.e., any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, power imbalance, or trust for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, deriving financial, social or political benefits from the sexual exploitation of another person. The risk of exploitative sexual behavior is particularly elevated during humanitarian crises. The threat of exploitation exists both for children and their caregivers (definition according to UN Bulletin ST/SGB/2003/13).
●Neglect of a child is the chronic or occasional failure to meet the child's basic physical and psychological needs and/or the disregard of the child's basic rights, causing harm to the child's health and/or difficulties in development. Neglect occurs in the relationship between the child and the person obliged to care for, raise, look after and protect the child.
7. Crime against a child – all crimes that can be committed against adults, and additionally crimes that can be committed only against children (e.g., sexual exploitation under Article 200 of the Penal Code​3). Due to the specifics of accommodation facilities, where it is easy to obtain opportunities for isolation, the crimes most likely to occur on their premises are crimes against sexual freedom and public decency, in particular rape (Art. 197 PC), sexual exploitation of incapacity and helplessness (Art. 198 PC), sexual exploitation of dependence or critical situation (Art. 199 PC), sexual exploitation of a person under 15 years of age (Art. 200 PC), grooming (seducing a minor using remote communication means - Art. 200a PC).
8. Other forms of harm to a child than committing a criminal offense against them – all forms of violence used against a child that do not meet the elements of a crime prosecuted by public indictment (e.g., shouting, humiliation, shaking, insulting, neglecting needs, etc.).
9. Employee means a person employed under an employment contract or performing work under a similar contract (e.g., mandate contract, B2B, contract for specific work), as well as an intern, trainee, volunteer, etc.
10. An employee employed to work with children is any person performing tasks or delegated to perform tasks related to upbringing, education, recreation, treatment, providing psychological counseling, spiritual development, sports activities or other interests of minors, or caring for them.
11. Entrepreneur – the authority/entity/person managing a given facility or network of facilities, responsible for the proper functioning of the facility in formal terms.

The Standards for the Protection of Minors at Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków are implemented based on the principles listed below:

Standard 1 – Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków has developed, adopted and implemented the Standards for the Protection of Minors, which define:
1) Principles of safe staff recruitment;
2) Procedures for responding to harm;
3) Procedures and persons responsible for receiving reports, documenting and further support actions;
4) Rules for determining a support plan for the minor after disclosure of harm;
5) Rules for safe staff–minor interactions, including prohibited behaviours;
6) Rules for safe minor–minor interactions, including prohibited behaviours;
7) Rules for using electronic devices with Internet access;
8) Procedures to protect children from harmful content and threats on the Internet, including protection of image and personal data;
9) Rules for disseminating and evaluating the Standards.

Standard 2 – Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków applies principles of safe staff recruitment and regularly trains staff on the Standards.

Standard 3 – Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków has implemented and applies intervention procedures that are known to and made available to all staff. Every employee knows to whom they should report information about harm to a minor and who is responsible for intervention actions. Each staff member is provided with contact details of local institutions responsible for prevention and intervention in cases of harm to minors.

Standard 4 – Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków monitors and, if necessary, evaluates the provisions of the Standards at least once every 2 years, consulting with staff, students and parents, legal guardians, and updates them.

The purpose of the Standards for the Protection of Minors is:
1) to draw the attention of Bogoria House staff, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków, parents (legal guardians) and cooperating entities to the need to undertake intensified actions to protect minor guests from harm;
2) to define the scope of duties of Bogoria House staff, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków in actions taken to protect guests from harm;
3) to develop an appropriate procedure to be used during intervention in cases of suspected harm to minors;
4) to introduce intensified preventive and educational activities to ensure the protection of young people from violence.
2. The staff of Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków, in the course of their duties, pay attention to risk factors of harm to a child, monitor the child's situation and well-being, and apply the rules set out in the Standards.
3. It is unacceptable for staff to use any form of violence against a child.
4. All staff of Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków are acquainted with the Standards.
5. The manager of Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków appoints:
Lidia Smolnik
Jakub Solski
as persons responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Standards, responding to signals of their violation, evaluating and modifying the provisions of the Standards, and maintaining a register of interventions and reports.
6. The manager of Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków is responsible for monitoring the security of ICT devices with Internet access.

Whenever the Standards for the Protection of Minors refer to:
1) the Standards – this means the Standards for the Protection of Minors at Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków
2) the Aparthotel - Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków
3) the manager of the Aparthotel – this means the manager of Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków

4) minor – this means a person who has not reached 18 years of age and has not entered into marriage;
5) staff – this means persons employed at Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków and persons with whom civil law contracts have been concluded;
6) employee – this means an employee of Bogoria House, Senacka Street 6, 31-002 Kraków

7) harm – this means any intentional or unintentional action or omission by an individual, institution, or society as a whole and any result of such action or inaction that violate the equal rights and freedoms of the guest and/or disrupt their optimal development.

The following forms of harm are distinguished:

• physical violence – violence that results in the minor suffering actual physical harm or being potentially at risk of such harm. This harm occurs as a result of action or omission by a parent or another person responsible for the minor, or by a person whom the minor trusts, or who has authority over them. Physical violence against a minor may be repetitive or a single incident;
• psychological violence – a chronic, non-physical, harmful interaction between the minor and the caregiver, including both acts and omissions. It includes, among others: emotional unavailability, emotional neglect, a relationship with the minor based on hostility, blaming, defamation, rejection, developmentally inappropriate or inconsistent interactions with the minor, failure to recognize or acknowledge the minor's individuality and psychological boundaries between parent and minor;
• sexual exploitation – involving the minor in sexual activity that the minor is not able to fully understand and give informed consent to and/or for which they are not developmentally mature and cannot legally consent in a valid way and/or which is contrary to the legal or customary norms of a given society. Sexual exploitation occurs when such activity takes place between a minor and an adult or between a minor and another minor if those persons are in a caregiving, dependent or authoritative relationship due to age or level of development;
• neglect of a minor – chronic or occasional failure to meet their basic physical and psychological needs and/or disregard of their basic rights, causing harm to their health and/or difficulties in development. Neglect occurs in the relationship between the minor and the person obliged to care for, raise, look after and protect the child.

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1 According to Polish law, a child is any person under eighteen years of age (Art. 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989). A minor is a person who has not attained majority, i.e., a person until the age of 18 or a woman who has obtained majority by entering into marriage after reaching 16 years of age (Art. 10 § 1 and 2 of the Civil Code), which may occur with the permission of the guardianship court for important reasons and if circumstances indicate that the marriage will be in the best interests of the family formed (Art. 10 § 1 of the Civil Code). 2 Parents - Art. 98 of the Family and Guardianship Code; guardian - Art. 155 of the Family and Guardianship Code; foster parent - Art. 1121 of the Family and Guardianship Code; temporary guardian - Art. 25 of the Act on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of that state.

2 Parents - Art. 98 of the Family and Guardianship Code; guardian - Art. 155 of the Family and Guardianship Code; foster parent - Art. 1121 of the Family and Guardianship Code; temporary guardian - Art. 25 of the Act on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of that state.

\3 Act of 6 June 1997 Penal Code (consolidated text, Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1138, as amended).