Today, on December 7th, a seminar was held in Uszhorod for heads and deputies of the departments for social protection of the population of the Transcarpathian region, directors of the institutions for social protection (school boarding houses, psycho-neurological boarding houses, geriatric boarding houses) by the regional coordinator for public relations of the Commissioner for human rights in the Transcarpathian region Oleg Grigoryev.

The aim of the seminar was to inform the officials about the present situation concerning the implementation of human rights in the detention places and the principles of work of the National preventive mechanism in Ukraine. “The human rights issue used to be, is and will be the priority in our country. The analysis of the supremacy of law in the country shows the level of its development”, – the head of the department for issues concerning invalids, veterans of war, work and hospital institutions, Mykulets Viacheslav, emphasized.

In the beginning of the seminar, Oleg Grigoryevv explained two main goals of the meeting: get acquainted for further cooperation (70% of the department heads were newly appointed) and present the work of the National preventive mechanism in Ukraine. “This structure is new enough in our country. It has functioned since 2012. Its main goal is regular systemic visits (monitoring) of all detention places to prevent from violent treatment of people. Notably, this body is not punitive. On the contrary, we provide reports with recommendations after our visits in order to abolish the shortcomings and elaborate ways out, that would improve the situation in the detention places”.

The regional coordinator drew attention at the principles of work of the NPM: “Now, the Ombudsman+ model is functioning, it means monitoring visits of the representative of the Commissioner with trained monitors. These can be any citizens of Ukraine, successfully gone through all trainings. The very existence of the independent public monitors gives a chance for the transparency and objectiveness of the visits”.

At the end of the seminar, Oleg Grigoryev presented the successful experience of the Ombudsman+ model along with a photo session. “This institution has existed for 3 and a half year and the monitoring has already been held in almost 800 places. There are, of course, some positive examples of implementation of human rights. However, human rights are violated in the most detention places“.

Viacheslav Mykulets concluded, expressing his expectations concerning the further work: “In my opinion, this institution will help to see our work in a completely different way. The Ukrainian society is not ready to discuss everything openly. Moreover, it is not ready for system changes. However, they are needed sometimes. Our common goal is to improve the life of people. These are the integration and cooperation that will help us to achieve the goal”.

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